Emerald Grass
by AibohphobiA
Summary: What if the killing curse, just didn't rebounded to Voldemort? What if it also created a magical portal to the Hidden Island of the Shinobi? HPNaruto Xover! Join Harry as Harii on the island as he struggles to make his way to become a great ninja.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: A curtain slides open revealing a plain theater. A man walks to the center and clears his throat. "Well, welcome, please make yourself comfortable and be nice, this is my first fanfiction after all," he paused to duck under a thrown tomato. Turning to look at the tomato and back, he nervously stated, "Umm, well I'm going to just say that all of this belongs to Rowling for Harry Potter, or as in the case of Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto. And that's all."

He cut himself off and he ran towards the curtains seeking safety, as various species of weeds and vegetables were thrown at the said author.

Prologue

It was a dark night indeed, streaks of lightning raced across the sky. Those dark clouds full of light energy waiting to be released hid the moon. They told of a foreboding future, for Fate had decided to interfere with destiny once again. It would begin soon, on the night of the second anniversary of the conception of one fated child. Harry Potter.

If a casual eavesdropper were to be there, they would miss the quiet pop of magic and if a casual onlooker were to be there, they would assume that a man had walked out of an alleyway. However whether there was one that night would not matter, there was only one outcome that would occur that night: the destruction of one Godric's Hollow.

The man walked towards the two-story cottage, followed by three of his inner circle, his best wizards. One could feel the killer intent in the air; even the three followers seem to have difficulty walking after him. Stopping, he slowly raised an arm to stop the wizards. From the depths of his thick black cloak a pale pair of lips moved and a high; raspy voice came forth, the men behind him shivered.

"It is time my death eaters, time to erase a future pest. Now! Hurry and place the last wards this wretched building will experience before it is burned to the ground!"

The men hurried past him chanting in Latin and waved a stick in their hands. Wands. A set of wards fell into place and Voldemort walked onto the lawn, past the Fidelius ward. Smirking, he stepped to the door and uttered a single word, and blew the door in its entirety to the far wall.

"Mr. Potter, I'm home." Who knew that a dark lord could be sarcastic?

The man sitting on the couch with his wife and son, sprang upwards and yelled something irrelevant, it would only delay the inevitable. The foolish man turned his attention to him and threw a slurry of spells at Voldemort. Cackling, he tapped them aside like one with a bug. His lips moved once more and once more that voice spoke.

"Fool, your death will mean nothing! Nothing to that _boy_. _Avada Kedavra!_" With those two words, the man saw a terrifying green light similar to his son's eyes and nothing else.

Kicking the dead man's body away, Voldemort continued on his way to the second story. His steps echoed on the sturdy wooden stairs, ominously calling out for an end, the end. He paused at the closed door, smirked and whispered another Latin word. The said door cracked under the power of the spell and soon exploded outwards into the nursery. Those pale lips moved once again.

"Foolish girl, move aside," despite her refusals he reluctantly killed her, "See, boy, your mother and father are gone, and soon you will join them. _Avada Kedavra!_"

As the moon peeked from behind the dark clouds of that night, Fate had decided to interfere with a wicked twist. The dark lord's eyes widened as he saw the spell being absorbed, giving the boy an aura of emerald. Those very same eyes widened even more as he saw the spell rebound, striking him instead, beckoning his death to come and take him away. He had thanked Lucifer that night for the idea of horcruxes: he would not die tonight. His spectral essence observed his physical body crumble to ashes and fled the area; it would not do well for Dumbledore to find him here. It was this impulse that he would not see a portal open behind the child, sucking him into the abyss. A second later Godric's Hollow would soon cease to exist, leaving behind an emerald fire consuming the last of the evidence of what had occurred that night. The muggles never noticed even a tremble as the evil had entered and left the hope of the Wizarding World missing. It was meant to stay that way for centuries to come.

He was taking his midnight stroll around Konoha, when an unnatural sound caught his attention. Ever the cautious Hokage, he slipped out a three-pronged kunai and approached the origin of the disturbance. Walking into the clearing, he saw a strange crib, with a crying child in it. He hurried over to the child and looked downwards.

The child had messy raven locks, a western face, and was wrapped in a soft cloth. Next to the baby, was a stuffed doll: one of a wolf. Visibly relaxing, the Yondaime picked the child up, and he instantly calmed down, and opened his eyes to look at the man holding him. To say that the yondaime was shocked to see the color of this child's eyes was an understatement. If he weren't a Hokage, he would have fell over in surprise, very unbecoming of him. No, the Yondaime simply picked up the small crib and ran towards the deserted Suigyoku family grounds.

Performing a landing worthy of a hokage, he walked purposefully pass the ruins of the house into the central courtyard. He took notice of the shrine in front of him. It was a simple one as most shrines are: a statue of importance, an altar, and on each side of the altar were two bamboo fire torches. Noticing the runes on the altar, he placed the child on the altar. Biting his thumb, he traced the blood on various runes on the altar and incanted _kikitadasu ichizoku no jutsu_.Emerald haze spewed from the empty torches and rose in front of the altar. The haze compressed and contracted to form: 'THE HEIR HAS BEEN FOUND. As the emerald haze retreated back into the torches, the Yondaime noticed the embroidery on the blanket wrapped around the child. It was surprisingly similar to the archaic alphabet that the ancient invaders had used two hundred years ago. Being a Hokage, it was his duty to know the invader's language in the scenario that they returned. He had roughly translated it to Harry Potter, a hard sequence of words to roll of the tongue. He gingerly picked up the child, ran to the orphanage, and placed him there. The same moon that had peeked out of the clouds, now stood naked, it's light shining on the child. He took a step away, turned and said,

"We will meet again Harii Aogetsuei Tougeika, Heir of the Emerald Elements."

This was 4 years before the 4th day of the 4th month when the Kyuubi struck.

An unusual boy was sitting on a lone swing near the orphanage. What was so unusual about him? Perhaps it was the fact that he was alone, his loneliness only pierced by the laughter of other kids playing behind him. Perhaps it was his uncanny ability to remain silent and composed while others whined or complained. Perhaps it was that he was small for his age, a skinny frame and a skinny face where frequently broken glasses lay perched. Perhaps it was his dark raven hair, seeming to flow with the wind in even the lightest of breezes. Or perhaps it was his eyes that had an impossible shade of green, one that could be easily mistaken for emeralds. No, it was because of his face. While it might not have a disfiguring trait to them- it was quite the opposite, if one would to observing him in his teens one would say he was quite eye-catching- they had the unmistakable face of a foreigner. This western face had too wide eyes, too large and sharp nose, and a to pale complexion to be even considered for one of eastern heritage. As he grew older, his mind and presence would become more oriental, but it would be in vain, for the foreign appearance would still mark him. Yet this child in spite of his loneliness had adorned a smile. It was his birthday; it was the day when this child would turn four, the day when his goal would be formed.

The noon bell had cried out just then, and the boy stood up and walked back to his orphanage, the party would start soon. He greeted the owner at the door, as the owner to him, and walked into the playroom. He had always noticed that the adults treated him differently, though not cruelly they were not like other children's treatment. They had always seemed too distant, too forced, to be genuine. Even when the adults treated him, he knew it wasn't full-fledged, not on the level of the other orphans had received. Only one adult he knew would greet him with the energy akin to others: the Hokage, strongest of Konoha. This man was the fourth in the succession of the title of Hokage, and perhaps the strongest of them all. Said man was now on his weekly visit to the orphanage, coincidentally arriving for the celebration. He cheerfully greeted each one of them, smiling at a few of them, including the boy. A small chime from the bell in the owner's hand had declared the celebration to commence. On cue as if rehearsed, the tiny voices of a score of children sang out:

"Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you; Happy Birthday to Harii, Happy Birthday to you!"

A cheer rose as Harii blew out the candles and the owner began to pass the cake around. After filling their tiny stomachs, the children got up and began to play games within their own groups. Again left to his lonesome, Harii walked up to the Hokage and tugged on his pants.

"Hello Mister Hokage Sir, will you play with me?"

"For a little while, Harii, I think I can squeeze in a few minutes before I have to go." And so the Hokage took Harii's hand and began to play with him, letting others to join him. For the first time, Harii felt connected with the other children as they chased each other and played ninja. Too soon did the hour bell ring and the Hokage had to leave the children to their games. As the Hokage left, Harii- now in a group of others- thought to himself:

When I grow up, I wanna be a ninja just like the Hokage.

Nine months had passed, since Harii's fourth birthday, and Harii had become more accepted with the other kids. He had not forgotten his new dream even with his newfound friends. Everyday he was found playing with his new posse; racing around, sneaking past one another, and climbing around. While he would not realize this until later, he was subconsciously training his way to his dream. Every game of tag, every game of hide and seek, and every game of ninja had aided him. One particular night just before midnight, Harii was unable to sleep for some reason. As much as he forced himself to go to sleep, all he did was turn in his cot. He gave up on his fourth try and sat up. He noticed a window open, and climbed through and up to the roof of the two-story orphanage. He marveled at the sky, it's faint twinkle winking at him as a mother would to a child. The only imperfection in this portrait was the grey clouds covering the moon, only allowing it to peek out every so often. He continued to marvel until a faraway sound had disturbed him. He turned in the direction of the sound and gasped at the sight. Far away, past the walls of Konoha was a giant fox, one traipsing through the surrounding forests, biting at a pest every so often. Surprising himself, he dropped to the ground and ran towards the walls to get a better view. He had thought he would be frightened by the vicious killer intent increasing with every step, but this pressure had seemed familiar to him somehow. And he wanted to know why.

He scaled up a high water tower near the walls, and peered at the battle unfold in front of him. It seemed that the giant fox was biting and clawing at the ninja attacking him. They had seemed to be doing something, waiting for someone or something to arrive, for they never once tried to attack him at once. He washorrified though, for it was obvious that many were losing their lives, and consequently losing the battle. Just then the demon fox whipped his tail around, decimating a tenth of the ninja. They retreated and it seemed that the fox was going to win, when the Hokage appeared in front of the fox on a giant frog. The Hokage was carrying something in his arms, something small. Then with a single hand seal Harii saw something that would be etched into his mind forever. As the moon took left of it's pests and shown a deep red; a bright light shone, and a huge figure appeared with a face that terrified Harii more then the fox did. The figure took the fox as the Hokage placed his palm on the object he was holding. With a horrifying scream the fox was sealed into the object.A joyful hurray emerged from Harii as he jumped, but it soon turned into a cry of pain as he saw the figure take his sword and stabbed the Hokage and continued to consume his ghostly form. The Hokage's body had collapsed, lying motionless in a deathly state. Tears welled up and fell down his cheeks as the ninja carried the Hokage and the object towards the village. As a man who carried the object passed under a beam of moonlight, Harii identified the object as a baby whose appearance mirrored the Yondaime's. Silently Harii descended the tower, ran back to the orphanage, and slipped into his bed.

"Happy Birthday," Harii whispered, sobbing himself to sleep. He never saw the moon outside his window turn emerald.

A/N: Phew, there the prologue's done. Not bad for a beginner eh? Reviews are welcome, and so are flames to think of it... Anyway, yes I know Naruto's birthday is October 10th, but come on it's fanfiction right? Oh and to disregard any confusion about Harry's b-day... let's just say that the portal shot him back in time... um, that's a reasonable explanation right? Well until next time.

AibohphobiA


	2. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: A luscious red curtain opens up revealing a lone figure on the stage. The figure coughed and spoke, "Well, umm same thing that I said in the Prologue." The figure stops to clear his throat and spoke once more in an official voice, "The elements of Harry Potter and Naruto are the works of J.K. Rowling and Masashi Kishimoto, respectively. Therefore none of the foresaid elements are the possessions of this author, which allows him to be free of any lawsuits." The figure once more stopped to observe the audience, "Umm, no vegetation throwing today?" A lone tomato soared and impacted on the figure's face. The curtains promptly closed.

Chapter 1

It was a great day for Harii: the sun was shining, the classmates were cheering, and to top it all off Harii graduated from the academy. Great wasn't it? But then if one were to look at Harii that hour after the graduation ceremonies, they would see tears. He was crying, crying for his friends to come back, to celebrate with him. Wiping his eyes, Harii turned from the joyful parents and children, and walked home. Tomorrow would be the assigning of teams, and he would be ready for it. A mask powered by determination slid into place, concealing all emotions from others. Ever since the kidnapping, he was left alone again; no one else had survived the incident. But he pushed that thought away; he had long since mastered his ability to leash his processes.

He was almost ten now, only a few weeks and his tenth birthday would come. He was probably the latest of that orphanage circle, they had all enrolled when they were around seven; he had started at the age of five. Funny how he had started earlier, yet graduated later. Yet, that was not his fault. He was bedridden for most of those years, being in a life-death condition that lasted for most of three years. It was only a month before today, when he was released from the hospital, fees suspiciously paid for anonymously. In the month left after in the term, he had honed his weaken state to one more fit than before the recovery. He had done a complete 180, impressive for one who endured so much.

Pausing he realized that he had already reached his apartment and that the sun was setting. Digging into his pockets, he shoveled for his keys. Cursing he had realized that he left the keys _inside_ of the apartment, _again_. He bent down on his knees and peeked into keyhole. He reached into his pocket and grabbed his hidden thief kit. Opening the case, he took out three hooked pins and set out to unlock the door. Ever since the incident, he had discovered that if he had focused enough, his normally weak vision would clear and sharpen as if he had bird eyes. Hearing a click from his efforts, he replaced the kit, straightened, and walked into his room. He shed his equipment and entered the kitchen. He turned on the stove and started his nightly ritual of cooking, eating and cleaning. Another one of his skills, he had conjectured; he was a surprisingly good cook. He accepted it as some sort of hereditary instinct that allowed him to cook so well. Or who knows, maybe it was what he was in another life: a servant. Shaking his head, he stepped onto the small porch that was attached to his bedroom, and climbed up to the roof. He laid himself down, and stared upwards at the now-dark sky.

The sky both terrified and calmed him, sent his heart racing and stopping; it was an enigma of sorts. The sky had mystified him as a child, guiding him through his infancy and early child days. It was what led him to that fateful night like this one: winking stars, endless darkness, and the hidden silver moon. _That night_ was one that he could never erase in his mind. It was the day that Harii in person saw Yondaime´s death and Naruto´s birth. He snorted, Naruto, it sure had fit him, his unbelievable behavior in such a small package; maelstrom indeed. He had tried hating Naruto. He seriously tried, but he couldn´t bring himself to do such a thing; Naruto was just like him. A child whose youth had been full of loneliness for such obvious reasons. It didn´t help the fact that he looked like the Yondaime. He shifted that thought aside; it was not good to dwell in pity. A star winked at him then, it was the same one that had winked at him since the orphanage. Sirius, the Dog Star. It had always watched over him like a father would, it was his safety, his confidence, and his first friend, even before the Yondaime. He pushed the thought away again, he sighed, he had better get inside; it was getting late for him to relapse so easily. He stood up and went to bed; the moon peeked out and Sirius winked once more.

* * *

The sun had shined through the screen of his window, waking him instantly. He got up and looked at the mirror beside his closet. He smiled a real smile; it was the day when teams were assigned. He went into his closet, then to the bathroom and out, all in twenty minutes. He walked back to his mirror and checked his appearance. He was naturally lean and lithe, which was hidden by his simple attire. His short raven hair was as always windswept, no matter what brush was forced upon it. His fringe had grown since his hospital stay and hid his scar, one that had always puzzled him. Perched on his nose were his glasses, one with small black lenses. He had donned a black t-shirt with a white undershirt that went halfway up his forearm, bandages on his forearms, and black fingerless gloves. Below he had black shorts to the middle of his shins, bandages below them, and dark blue sandals. He also had weapon sacks on his right thigh and waist. Completing the ensemble, he picked up his forehead protector and tightened it on his neck. He picked up his things and walked out of his apartment. Falling down to the street below, the air caught his fringe and blew it upwards revealing a sharp lightning bolt scar above his right eye. It was time to be a ninja. 

He had walked into the assignment room and took a seat in the back by himself. He looked around, it was all empty, he was the first one, funny he´d thought that there´d be at least one other person other than him in here. Just as he was considering to leave, the door slid open and the other graduates came in

choosing a seat for themselves, though none near Harii. A few minutes of nonsense chatter rose among those present, as Harii slept. He could hear the whispers about him, the rumors flying, _fools_, he thought. Ever since he came back and graduated effortlessly they had kept their eyes on him. The silent

scraping of the door brought everyone to a deafening silence as their past teachers slipped into the room. Addressing the newly appointed gennin, the teachers announced,

"Now that everyone´s here, we can start your assigning. We assigned the teams by using your test scores and teacher notes. Therefore each team is

balanced, so there will be no super groups. We wouldn't want that, do we? Also each team will be assigned a jounin sensei. Anyway let's begin from the bottom of the list." _Such an eccentric man_.

His voice droned off into the distance as Harii feinted sleeping, he instead was observing his new surroundings. The gennin in the left row were obviously a group, full of loud obnoxious kids. The middle row were all of the normal kids, one from each clan and a few first-ers. In the right row were the leftovers; _how quaint_, he thought, _we are already divided by our social groups_. His head rose an inch as the teacher assigned the next team.

"Okay the last team, led by Koroshiya Kokuei, Team 4: Hyuuga Kinji, Hana Rikou, and Tougeika Harii-"

"What! Why do I, a _Hyuuga_, have to be with a sharp-nose like _him_! Why, I bet he probably was dead last!"

"Ahem, actually he scored fairly well, you were behind him five ranks, and he was behind Rikou by two places."

Harii had to muffle a snort, as the Hyuuga reddened to quite a vicious red.

"Now that we are all assigned, you will meet your new sensei in a few minutes."

With that he and the others left, leaving the genin behind. Just as he closed the door though, one could hear Kinji exclaim:

"He probably cheated his way through!"

* * *

Harii held in a groan, he was stuck in the same room as the Hyuuga _and_ the jounin was late, not incredibly late though, _that_ would be an embarrassment. He saw the Hyuuga walk over to the door and set up a simple prank. _How mundane_. The Hyuuga sniggered and went back to his seat. A minute passed and the footsteps of the jounin could be heard. As he opened the door, an eraser flew over to the Hyuuga and smacked him in the face. As Harii held in his guffaw, he heard Rikou trying to smother her giggle. _Hmm, maybe she isn't such a stern person after all_. The jounin was dressed quite blandly. He had a normal jounin uniform with the forehead protector on his upper arm, like he said, bland. The only thing interesting are the scars on his cheeks. He opened his mouth and said, 

"That was weak. Now let's all go to the roof, it's time for some introductions." He disappeared and the team climbed their way to the roof. They found him on the roof staring at the clouds.

"What took you so long? Never mind that let's start off with the kid with no pupils, introduce yourself, your likes/dislikes, and your goal." said the jounin.

"My name is Hyuuga Kinji and I am part of the main branch, my likes is displaying my skills, my dislikes are people below me, and my goal is to become the head of my clan." It was then that Harii took in his appearance. Pupil-less eyes that were typical of the Hyuuga with the protector resting above them and short black hair cropped in orderly spikes; expensive looking clothes, all in white; and the common ninja tools. _Obviously relies on ninjutsus most of the time_, thought Harii, _let's hope he doesn't go all pansy on this team, whining about his clothes_.

"Very proud, I see. Now the girl in the red Chinese dress."

"My name is Torigoya Rikou and I am the first ninja in my family, who has been breeding birds for nin for generations," Kinji snorted, " my likes are cooking and reading, and my dislikes are stupid people," a pointed look at Kinji, "And my goal is to become a successful ninja." As with the Hyuuga, Harii accessed Rikou: dark brunette hair wrapped into a bun with needles pointing outwards, chocolate eyes, a simple red Chinese dress, and bandages from her hips and shoulders to her knees and elbows. All ninja tools that were common were hidden on her person Harii assumed.

"Good, good, now the shades kid."

Harii cleared his throat, and spoke, "My name is Tougeika Harii," a snort was heard, "and I am an orphan. I started at the academy at five, but had an accident that landed me in the hospital for the next five years. I like to train and gaze at the night sky. I dislike prejudice and bullying. My goal is to become a great ninja, and eventually live my life peacefully."

The jounin stopped from his cloud gazing and looked at his new students. "Good, be prepared by noon for a test by the memorial park, dismissed!" He stood up and disappeared. The genin stared at his exit, and went off to their separate ways to prepare.

* * *

By noon the three genin found themselves in the park waiting for their sensei to appear. The clock nearby chimed noon, and Kokuei greeted them from behind. 

"Hello, nice to see that all of you are prompt. Now the test, I am going to have all of you try to obtain a bell from me, there's three of you and two bells, we go until two hours have passed or all the bells are taken. The one without a bell by two hours gets to go back to the academy! Got it? Now what are you guys waiting for? Start!"

At that word, all three hid in the surroundings. Harii choose to hide near the tree Kokuei was standing by after 'hiding' in other places. He observed the jounin pushing up his glasses every now and then. All the jounin seemed to be doing was playing with a small stone with his fingers. Suddenly he saw the Hyuuga jump out of a nearby bush throwing his kunai and shuriken at the jounin. He seemed to not notice the attack as the flying weapons struck him. The Hyuuga cheered as he bent down to pick up a bell, when he was plunged up to his head in the ground. _Shinju zanshu no jutsu_, thought Harii, _that was unexpected_. The jounin reappeared in front of the Hyuuga and smirked at him, reprimanding him. Harii continued to observe Kokuei when he realized an opening in the jounin's guard. He drew a kunai and poised to throw it when Rikou jumped out of a treetop performing an aerial attack. This time Kokuei turned around and incanted, "_Hosenka no jutsu_!" Multiple fireballs flew out and incinerated each kunai thrown. Rikou fell pass the ashes and threw two huge shuriken, "_Kage shuriken no jutsu_." The jounin managed to stop the first one, but was impaled by the hidden one.

Smiling she ran up to get a bell but was shocked to see Kokuei poof into a log. _Kawarimi no jutsu, clever I wonder where he- oh shit_! Harii jumped out from under the bush and started throwing kunai. _Damn, I almost got hit; only his obvious intent hinted at me_. Harii reached into his waist holders and fingered a hooked chain. _Not yet_. Four Kokuei's rushed at Harii and a large cloud began to form. The only sound that could be heard were a few grunts and a sudden yelp of pain. Harii exited the cloud and dragged Rikou and the Hyuga into the woods.

"Get your hands off of me! I don't need your help!" the Hyuuga complained."

"You didn't show it, back with the fight with Kokuei-sensei." retorted Harii.

"Shush! Now's not the time for it! We need to do something about sensei, fighting is not going to help that." whispered Rikou, Harii's respect for her grew with those words.

"Okay, well it'll won't be long until Kokuei gets free from my chains; we have to be a team to beat him."

"Team up? With you? I'd rather not, sharp-nose."

Harii exhaled loudly as he pushed up his glasses and ran his hand through his hair, "I know you don't want to, but would you rather get sent back to the academy and be ridiculed?"

With the word 'ridiculed' the Hyuga changed his position: "I don't like it but I'll do it."

Rikou smiled at this, "Good, I have a plan."

* * *

Kokuei managed to get out of the chains fairly easily, as he released his shadow clones; he only sustained a cut from where the hook had caught on him. _Clever little gennin_, using my four copies against me with that smoke, then tying me up with a hooked chain, really painful to be on the receiving end. He checked the bells and went to find the gennin. As he took a step though kunai flew at him at the front, and shuriken at the back. Diving to the side he faced the Hyuuga kid in the standard gentle fist taijutsu stance. Gulping, he back-flipped out of the way of his attacks and said, _Hosenka no jutsu_. Fire flew at the kid who performed a kawarimi; Kokuei turned and found himself kicked by the girl and grabbed her leg, using it to throw her away. She flipped and landed, and began to flick her hands. Kokuei's eyes widened as he saw a barrage of implements fly at him. He ducked and ran towards her landing a punch to her stomach. She doubled over and he leg swiped her pushing her away. The Hyuuga kid caught her and carried her into the forest. A clink of metal diverted his attention to the orphan kid. His face was scrunched in concentration as he finished his seal, _Kage kusari bunshin no jutsu_! Surprised to see such a high level attack from the boy he brought his arms up to defend. However he braced for nothing as the ninjutsu seemed to fail. Only the laughter of the genin behind him alerted him to his failure. He looked at them and saw the orphan with the bells in his hands. Glancing down, he saw that the bells were indeed taken. He looked at the orphan boy with the chains and smiled when it poofed into a cloud of smoke. 

"Well done, you all pass. Now tell me what your plan was."

Rikou smiled and started to explain her plan, "Well, while you were chained up we teamed up and prepared for the next attack. Our plan was to distract you enough so that you would take your attention off the bells and concentrate on the attacks we gave you. Kinji first threw the kunai as I threw the shuriken at you. Then Kinji dropped down to the ground and attacked you with his gentle fist. While we were planning, Harii mentioned how when you attacked him he saw a sequence of seals that had created what I had identified as kage bunshin. So when I attacked you, Harii sent his clone to pretend to perform a high-level ninjutsu. When you faced his false attack, Harii himself snuck up behind you and took them from you. End of story."

"Good... deception within deception. Okay! As of today Team 4 is an official team! We start missions tomorrow! Dismissed!"

* * *

A/N: Whoops, I forgot about the translations (baka -.-). Before that though, are the thanks. I thank my Beta for helping me make this story look good. I also thank the reviewers, feedback is great! 

Ahem, now are the translations:  
_Shinju Zanshu no jutsu - Inner Decapitation Technique  
Hosenka no jutsu - Phoenix Fireball Technique  
Kage shuriken no jutsu - Shadow Shuriken Technique  
Kawarimi no jutsu - Replacement Technique  
Kage kusari bunshin no jutsu - Shadow Chain Clone Technique  
Kage bunshin no jutsu - Shadow Clone Technique_

Also sorry about the wait time, intially Chapter 1 was twice this length, but hey I really needed Chapter 1 off of my back. Chapter 2 should come around soon, might do some last minute revisions, but whatever.

Until next time,

AibohphobiA


	3. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: The red curtains open up once again, revealing the author dressed in a school uniform, "Eh... Sorry about the wait, this'll be quick... I don't any of the elements related to Harry Potter or Naruto those are the possessions of J.K. Rowling and Mashashi Kishimoto..."

The authorsoon ducks and runs off stage motioning for the curtains, fleeing from the numerous amounts of pointy objects thrown at said author.

Chapter 2

Harii mentally groaned. He was on his seventh mission, one in a series that was beginning to bore him excruciatingly. They came in a mundane order: catching a lord's wife's cat, tilling fields, catching the lord's wife's dogs, cleaning the roads, catching the lord's wife's bird, taking care of said bird, and now catching the lord's wife's precious collection of dogs. Harii groaned, why couldn't that lady just learn to not open cages when the door's open?

Now he found himself hiding in a _very _thorny, _very_ dense bush of roses. He mentally sent a curse to whoever twisted his life this way. That Hyuuga kid just had to take his spot, he cursed again as he felt a thorn poke him in the arm. Really though, why did the gardener have to plant a rose bush in the middle of a _daisy_ field. Rikou was in the trees observing the grounds of the lord's manor; apparently her family had great eyesight from spotting potential birds to breed. The Hyuuga guy was comfortably nestled in an advantageous place to subdue the target. He had pushed Harii away, leaving him to pick the next best place: a rose bush.

Oh, how he had wanted to slice this bush into weeds, but he wouldn't it was someone's property. He had discovered the _denkou no tan no jutsu_ when he had woken from the coma. He remembered that his hands were aflame with pain, then himself falling unconscious as his hands started to spasm. When he woke, he felt pain arise from the back of his head; the pain ran trickled down to his hands. Harii remembered his hands move on their on accord, forming seals. His hands spread apart and pain raked through his hands once more. He fell unconscious once more from the intense amount of pain. He woke for the last time as the sun set, he looked down, to see his wrist sprouting out a curved bolt of electricity. He promptly fainted at the sight of said palms slicing through his bed.

A high whistle roused Harii from his fuming. It was his signal that Rikou saw their target, and she was right, Harii could see the white brute stumbling along. The dog seemed to wander from one patch of daisies to another, all the while heading closer to Harii. Seven meters away from Harii, the dog sniffed the air seeming to notice something amiss. Harii paused and counted to three: _one… two… three! _Harii jumped from the bush, biting his tongue as a few of the thorns were ripped off from the stems, preferring to stay with Harii's body. The sight of Harii surprised the dog, which in turn followed his instincts and ran away from the thorny boy.

The dog only managed several steps when it was tackled by Hyuuga. Spittle was flying everywhere as the dog wriggled in the Hyuuga's grasp. Harii cringed back as Hyuuga walked up to him smiling, covered in the dog's spittle. Harii stared at Hyuuga, no stared at the goop of saliva threatening to drip down his nose. Hyuuga stepped closer as Harii stepped backwards, another step another cringe. Harii spotted Rikou in the corner of his eye grinning at him, gulping, he stepped back once more, right into Kokuei. Harii raised his gaze and saw Kokuei's toothy grin. Harii dropped his head and muttered,

"At least there's only one left…"

* * *

The lord was a bastard.

And no, he didn't forget the _child_ part of it.

The lord was an utter bastard.

Even with the work the team had done for his wife, he still didn't let them rest in a spare room. Harii shook his head; the team had to camp out in the woods in the grounds for the night. _What a waste of perfectly good oxygen, _thought Harii, _seriously if it were some other lord, then they'd be grateful to shelter some ninja of their village, but no… _Harii's thoughts were interrupted when the Hyuuga asked him something.

"Hmm?"

"I said; how old are you? Can't you hear or are you deaf as well as filthy?"

Harii snarled, "Well at least I don't need to spout off some stupid clan bigotry."

Kinji looked puzzled at this, "What ever the hell you said, isn't worth my attention, sharp-nose."

Rikou placed her head in her hands as the Kinji stood up, "Why don't we fight, taijutsu only no weapons, I'll show you how much better I am."

"Guys don't, Kokuei might get mad, when he comes back from gathering kindle."

"I don't care, Rikou, this is between sharp-nose here and me."

Rikou's mouth twisted at him, but sighed as she watched Harii and Kinji fight each other. Kinji had fell into his Jyuuken stance, as Harii fell into the standard taijutsu stance taught by the academy. Rikou shook her head, Harii was going to lose.

Kinji charged at him, palms aiming for Harii's chest. Harii blocked the attack, but was shocked to find a painful needle sensation coursing through his arm. He jumped back, a questioning glint on his eyes. Kinji sneered,

"Heh, my family's taijutsu style, Jyuuken, it targets and damages the chakra system of the body instead of the body itself. You can't win against it!"

Harii's mouth narrowed and jumped back dodging every attack Kinji dished out. Kinji drew back and lowered one palm, while raising another. Rikou's eyes widened as she saw the stance completed, Harii was in trouble. Apparently Harii noticed the change in stance too, and lowered his body. Kinji rushed at him, his hands streaking through the air. Harii's body tensed and flew around the dangerous fingertips. Around and around they went, Kinji striking as Harii dodged the previous ones. Rikou noticed both were tiring, though Harii was tiring faster.

Harii back flipped narrowly dodged the most recent attack that Kinji launched. Kinji rushed to meet Harii again, Harii's body tensed again. This time however, Harii's body barely moved as each strike neared it. Kinji's breath increased with every failed attack, though Harii seemed to be steadying his. In desperation Kinji struck out at Harii's heart, only to find his hand caught by another's. Kinji looked up, finding Kokuei staring down at him. Only Kinji saw Harii's hands trembled more and his eyes turned a darker shade.

"Now Kinji, no need to kill Harii, now. I think it's a good time to calm down, and eat dinner eh?"

The boys blanched and nodded, joining Rikou near the fire. Rikou glared at the two, "I told you two would get into trouble!"

Kinji glared at her, while Harii just shook his head chewing his food. Rikou spoke up again, "But that fight was intense, at first I thought Harii would lose, then when he kept dodging you I thought Kinji was going to."

Kinji puffed up his chest, "Well it was obvious that I was going to beat sharp-nose over here, I was merely going easy on him."

Harii shook his head again, placed his plate down and drew up his knees; it seemed a good idea to not comment on that. Rikou instead did it for him, "Right, that's why you were out of breath, when Kokuei interrupted your attack."

Kinji reddened and raised a hand as if to smack her, Harii grabbed the hand and twisted it.

"I advise you not to do that, Hyuuga, while it is alright for me to lose to you; it is not moral for one to injure a lady." Harii's whispers seemed to echo around the campsite, his voice suddenly vicious.

"And if I don't, what will you do sharp-nose?"

Harii didn't answer, but his eyes darkened further. He drew back his hand and quickly hurried through the seals. His forefinger curled, and lightning grew from his wrist to his middle finger. Kinji and Rikou's eyes widened at the sight. Kinji gulped and dropped his arm. Harii canceled his jutsu and bid them goodnight. Never once did his teammates see his eyes flicker with fear and pain.

* * *

The smoke from the snuffed fire continued to rise from the pit as the sun rose above the horizon. Rikou was an early riser, like most of her family, after all one of their mottos was that the early bird gets the worm. She yawned and dressed herself, all the while packing up; it was highly probable that they would complete the current mission today. She opened her tent and noticed that Harii's tent was already packed. She was surprised; Harii was usually the last one to wake, even after Kinji. It was weird for her to find out that Harii was so… inept at waking early. He seemed to her to be the perfect image of a ninja of the old tales: silent, deadly, quick, and an enigma. He was every bit of that, well at least any time other than in the morning.

She looked around and spotted a distinct footprint near the edge of the clearing they camped in. She got up and left her pack by a tree to go and investigate. Following the footsteps she found herself at a lake. She turned her neck and found Harii at the right end of the lake, gazing serenely at the surface ripples.

Rikou walked to Harii wondering what had overcome him last night. She sat down next to him and stared at the lake, trying to find what had caught Harii's interest. Harii seemed not to react to the recent addition, but kept staring into the lake. She turned from her gazing to Harii; he seemed to search the lake as if to find the answer to his troubles. Obviously he had experienced some sort of trauma in the past, most likely the incident that had landed him in the hospital. A tremble caught her attention; she looked down to see Harii's hands in those black fingerless gloves of his, the ones that had never left its post. The hands were twisted and clenched, his unnaturally pale skin underneath flirting with her curiosity. At first she had thought the trembles were just from the clenching and unclenching of his hands, but then she noticed how his hands had shook when not urged. _His hands, they are twitching and spasming by their own accord…_ He was a puzzle, Rikou decided, one that Rikou was determined to figure out.

A twig snapped and Rikou twisted her neck to see Kinji standing there, arms crossed, a troubled expression marring his countenance. Rikou looked back to see that Harii had not responded at all to the sound. Kinji walked over to them, and hesitated, hovering over them. Kinji had apparently made his decision and joined the two by the bank. He drew his breath in, and exhaled through his teeth. _He's attempting to say something difficult for him, _conjectured Rikou.

Kinji opened his mouth, but closed it suddenly clenching his jaws. Harii still didn't react, only moving to clench his hands. Kinji had either had enough of the silence or had gathered enough courage to speak.

"Rikou… I'm sorry about threatening you and uh… trying to hit you…" Kinji paused as if to recollect his thoughts, "Harii… I'm… uh… sorry… about my… uh… previous actions… Please accept my… uh… apologies…"

Harii stopped wringing hands, but they still shook like they had possessed an extra mind. Rikou closed her eyes, trying to tap into some kind of precognitive ability. Harii would most likely turn down Kinji's attempt at an apology, then they'd get into a fight, then-

"I'm ten," whispered Harii.

"What?" asked a bewildered Kinji.

"I said I'm ten," replied Harii.

"WHAT!" exclaimed Kinji. Even Rikou was surprised at the answer; both had assumed he was small for his age, not young.

"But I'm twelve!"

"So you are,"

"Whoa… Well let's start over alright? Hi, I'm Hyuuga Kinji."

"I'm Tougeika Harii."

Smiling, the two of them shook hands. Rikou was beaming behind them. Kinji opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by Kokuei's sudden appearance.

"Sorry to break this up, but if you guys want the day off then we have to get his mission done quickly. No objections? Good. Alright let's go, we're all packed up so let's get moving! Dismissed!"

* * *

A/N: Phew, sorry to keep you peoples (that's right peoples) waiting, but finals had caught it's peak and now I'm stuck with 6 projects and 6 finals waiting... -.-Well that's my first excuse, my second is that this is actually not the original Chapter 2. Yeah, the original Chapter 2 (now dubbed Chapter 3) will come soon. When I wrote it, it felt really off, rewrites after rewrites I realized I needed a filler between them so... here we are. Chapter 3 will be triple this size and will come soon!

Thanks to my Beta!

Translations  
_denkou no tan_ - edge of lightning

Before I go and work on Chapter 3: About the incident and his hands, well let's just say it'll be all explained in Chapter 4 which is almost done.

AibohphobiA


	4. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Eh… Crap… I got nothing for the disclaimer this time… OH! Wait I got it!

Author: whistling while he works

A Man: Ahem.

Author: Jumps What the censored!

A Man: I think you need to do something…

Author: Uh… yeah, uh I don't own any of this, Rowling and Kishimoto does… umm… could you get that knife from my neck now?

A Man: Sure, remember your guardian angel is always watching.

Author: pales and slowly faints _I knew I shouldn't have taken that extra dose of cough syrup_

There! On to the Chapter!

Chapter 3

It had been many missions and many months since that path-forging day, it seemed that the boredom would never end. Harii himself, though he would never admit it, was bored to death. Every day there would be a D-ranked mission, and every day it would be done in several hours if not minutes. However there was one good thing that had benefited from the mundane assignments: their teamwork had excelled to where even their sensei had to concentrate to fight against them. Yet Team 4 would still complain on different levels. Kinji would whine obviously, while Rikou would sigh a lot; Harii on the other hand was simply quiet, only an occasional roll of his eyes would betray his idleness. Finally one day Kinji had enough, and when the Hokage gave them their new assignment, he vocally announced,

"Alright! That's it! I'm sick of all these D-ranked missions! I want to do something harder, something more challenging, something where I can show my skills!" Harii and Rikou snorted, while Kokuei merely shook his head softly. Though Kinji had become more open-minded he was still a bit of a show-off.

The Hokage did not seemed perturbed at the outrage, he tipped his hat and calmly replied; "Fine, personally I am surprised you didn't break down earlier, it was what most genin teams had done at least a week ago," At this statement, Kinji's jaw dropped and retreated back to his fellow companions. "Okay, since you all have been so patient I'll assign a low-level C-ranked mission. Your mission is to deliver this package safely to the Land of the Mist. There one of their nin will come and relieve you of your package." He handed over a tightly wrapped brown package to Kokuei, nodded, and dismissed them.

"Once out of the assignment room, Kokuei turned sharply to his genin and spoke, "Well you heard the Hokage, we're going to go to the Mist country. Pack up and meet up at the gates by tomorrow morning. Dismissed!"

By the next day all four were found at the gates ready to depart from Konoha. Kokuei addressed them all before they left, "Okay, since this is a simple delivery C-mission all we really need to do is keep an eye out for anyone trying to take this package from us. Be careful, I have seen simple C-missions like these ones turn into B-ranked ones. Just take care okay? Alright let's go." The team departed and immediately traversed through the trees.

Though on a mission the atmosphere around them was cheerful and amiable, Kinji and Rikou started to talk to each other, occasionally getting into an argument, in which Harii would swiftly resolve. It seemed that the team had influenced her; back in the academy she was the quiet know-it-all, now she was more talkative but mostly to her team. Harii shook his head, Kokuei could get her to ramble, he could get her to smile, and Kinji could get her mad. _What a dysfunctional team we have._ The sound of another verbal fight alerted him and Harii increased his speed and appeared between them.

"I think that's enough chat between the two of you." The three genin smiled and continued jumping through the trees. Kinji seemed to change since making amends between them; while he was more tolerant he still had his arrogance. Though it was mostly show, sometimes it actually appeared and it took the entire team's effort to beat him down again. Then again, Harii had changed also. He was more laid back and easy going, and more willing to broadcast his emotions. He had actually started to consider his team as his family. Harii shook his head again, but this time Rikou noticed.

"Harii, have you been sleeping well?" Ever the observant one she had noticed his faint bags under his eyes. "It's okay, it's just nightmares again." Simple and short, Kinji and Rikou knew something was wrong, but they decided not to ponder, Harii had these visions every week. They had first found out when they had to camp out one night on a mission. Rikou was on watch, when she heard whimpering, she turned and saw Harii tossing about. The tossing was violent enough that it had waked Kinji, who was on the opposite side of the fire. Rikou hurried to Harii's side and shook him awake. Kinji and Rikou inquired to why it had happened, but Harii brushed them off. They never asked about it since.

Harii knew he should have told them, but he couldn't bring himself to explain why he was dreaming of green light. Frankly, that green light had terrified him as much as the kyuubi did. He drew himself from his thoughts and focused on the mission at hand. Kinji recognized the change in Harii's stature and attempted to talk/flirt with Rikou once more.

* * *

It was nightfall when they had reached their first stop: a small but busy village with multiple hotels lining the center. They had checked into one and found out that only one room was left. Rikou groaned and Kinji smirked as they opened the door. Apparently it was a doubles bedroom: two sizes too small. Kokuei spoke up, "No need to worry I will rest by the door, you guys can sleep in there." Rikou rushed in mumbling something about 'lousy hotels' and 'perverted teammates.' Harii smiled and shook his head as he headed to the opposite side of the room and setting up his bed. Kinji continued to smile toothily as he swaggered to Harii and set up his bed, unnecessarily close to Rikou's. 

After they all had unpacked, they headed to the hot springs, which fortunately for Rikou were separated. While the others had every article of clothing off, only adorning a towel, Harii kept his gloves on. They had soaked for a while, relaxing and moaning in pleasure as the springs worked out the kinks in their muscles during the run. Kinji suddenly sprouted a smile and turned to Harii.

"So, Harii…"

"Sorry Kinji, I'm not interested, besides you're not my type."

Kinji spluttered and retorted loudly, "I wasn't going to ask you out!"

Snickers were heard all around, and Kinji blushed a bright red. And just to add salt to his wounds Harii added loudly, "I'm sorry; I didn't quite hear that, did you say you were gay?" Kinji once again blushed turning his head to an outstanding shade of tomato red.

A few awkward minutes passed as the guys once again returned to soak in the spring. Harii took off his gloves discretely and began to massage them. The water rippled as Kokuei got up and walked to the room, saying something about leaving the two boys to their bonding. Both genin flushed, as these words reached their ears. Once the redness died down, Kinji turned to Harii once more.

"Alright, second try, Harii want to go and peek at the girls?"

"Eh, sure, you first." Kinji never saw Harii's smirk as he swam to the wooden separator. Kinji carefully lifted himself above the fence and looked downwards, only to fall back as a stone was thrown at him. Harii laughed hard, swam over to Kinji, and pushed up his glasses, "Is it my turn now?" And was kindly replied with a "Screw you." Harii laughed once more and said, "Again, I'm not your type. I'm going to head in, have fun getting baka-fied."

Kinji stood up and glared at Harii's retreating back and tried once more, lifting himself up. This time no stones were thrown, nor were complaints heard. Yet Kinji's face became paler than usual and fell again to the spring. The only thing running through his head at that moment was: "_Naaaa….kkkked…. oolll…. dddd…. ggggrrr…. annnn…. iiessss…."_

* * *

The sun rose early the next morning, greeting the new day with brilliance as Team 4 stepped outside the village and resumed their trek towards the Mist country. Unfortunately the rest of Team 4 remembered last night. 

"So Kinji how was the peeping?" chided Harii, pushing up his glasses.

Kinji blushed bright red and once more his teammates burst into laughter. "It's not funny! I think I'm traumatized for life! I've never saw so many sagging-" His sentence was once again broken by the laughter of Rikou.

"Well now you know not to peep on me mister!" scorned Rikou. But before Kinji could reply, Kokuei suddenly stopped and spoke, "Alright, from now on we will need to be more serious, there have been reports of missing-nin and bandits around this area. Be prepared to be attacked at any moment. Let's go now."

They continued onwards, traversing farther into the woods, towards the port. When the sun reached its highest point, the team stopped for lunch. As Kokuei ate his lunch, he scrutinized Harii's hands for the first time. He had heard of the unfortunate accident that had befallen him, yet he still couldn't believe the boy's luck, he was supposed to be dead. No one could have survived something like that. He saw the hands start to spasm slightly as Harii walked over to the river and massaged them, occasionally soaking them in the water. A breeze lifted Harii's fringe, and for a second there Kokuei saw the scar above Harii's right eye. _Definitely the child of lightning_, thought Kokuei. Harii pushed his glasses upwards, walked back to his lunch and finished it.

While the rest were cleaning up their remains, Harii walked over to the stream once again and washed his face and hands. He breathed in and splashed his face once more. Through the watery curtain that ran down his face, Harii thought he saw the river move unusually. As Harii put back on his glasses, he saw another movement and reached for his kunai. The water rose and stabbed at Harii as he backflipped away.

At the sight of Harii being attacked, the rest of the team became alert, scanning for any hints of an attack. Harii retreated back to the group and together they formed a defensive position. A raucous laughter rang throughout the clearing.

"Lookie here bro… looks like we found the Konoha carriers. I think we should take it from them, don't you think?"

"Yeah bro, let's go and get them!"

Two forms jumped from the lake and appeared before Team 4. Both wore identical outfits: bandages covering all of the body, white armor on their arms and legs, the ones on the arms hiding their hands, a mouth mask, and the protector clearly marking them as missing-nin. Kokuei clearly knew who they were as he spoke,

"Eh? The Mizu chain twins, what a freaky surprise… how are lives on the run?"

The one on the right spoke up, "Kokuei… Shadow Assassin… I'm going to like killing you… I haven't gotten any good blood in a while…" The two charged at Kokuei their arms flailing behind them. Kokuei pushed his team away and flicked his kunai at them. He rapidly formed seals and spit out, _Katon: Gokakyu no jutsu! _A gigantic fireball consumed the twin attackers, and continued to burn.

When the flames died, the twins were found unhurt twirling a length of chain. "Heh, your petty fire attacks won't hurt us, these chains will protect us against them." Kokuei's eyes narrowed at this statement and flipped backwards as the twins attacked. They whipped their chains at Kokuei, and smirked as they struck the ground. A second passed and twin explosions came, blasting Kokuei to a tree trunk. Blood seeped from his mouth, as his body impacted against the trunk, groaning at the force of the blast.

One of the twins chuckled, "Our chains… have a special addition… they are loaded with explosives… and the slightest tremor… will set them off. Your attempts to dodge… will fail, excruciatingly…"

Kokuei wiped off the blood dripping down his chin, and smiled at them. He turned to his students, "Sorry about the restraints, I didn't need any distractions. Again sorry for the gruesome sight coming up." He smiled at them before returning his gaze at the twins. He formed a unique seal and spoke, _Hitokage houshutsu!_ Kokuei's body seemed to glow for a second before a shadow flew from his body towards the twins.

The twins withdrew their chains and twirled them, weakly attempting to defend themselves against the shadow; said shadow flew at the chains and punched one before fleeing back into the body of Kokuei. The chain that was punched by Kokuei swung sideways, wrapping itself on its brother and dropped to the ground with a loud _clank!_ The twins looked at each other, then at the chains and swore. A second later the twin's words were reinforced as the chains exploded, blasting them into the river, which swept them away.

Kokuei stood up, walked over to his students and released his restraints. He turned and simply said, "Come on, we still got a mission to complete." The genin looked at each other, and then their sensei's back, and followed him.

* * *

The three genin caught up with their sensei in the woods and approached him. 

"What the hell was that?" Kinji was the obvious one who voiced the thoughts of all three genin. Kokuei didn't speak at first, but answered, "An original jutsu, what else?"

Harii rolled his eyes and pushed up his glasses, "Let me rephrase Kinji's question, _what the hell happened?_"

Kokuei sighed and slowed down so he was in line with the genin. "That was my original jutsu that I had used during the Iwa-Konoha War against the Rock nin…" another sigh was heard, "Back in the Iwa-Konoha War I was, along with a few of other young jounin, a crucial helping hand to ending the war. Like my other peers, I received a nickname for my efforts and techniques. I was given the name of Shadow Assassin for my Hitokage Houshutsu that I had used to kill many leaders opposing Konoha. The missing-nin we just fought were, in my time, chuunin level operatives that had slaughtered many using their chains, unfortunately they abandoned their country for their own blood thirst."

Rikou shuddered then, and commented, "Ruthless men; where are the hunter-nins?"

Kokuei shook his head, "The reason why the chain brothers aren't dead already are because they are the specialists of ambush. They were probably here before us and were waiting for one to get close to the river."

Harii shuddered visibly, and the team went onwards eyes twitching around for any signs of the twins.

* * *

Another two days and the team found themselves in the city where the pick up would be. Kokuei had insisted they not sleep for there maybe a sneak attack by missing-nin as while the Mist country was at peace, there were rumors of a coup. Four minutes had ticked passed midnight and a ninja was heard arriving at the delivery point. 

A watery voice was heard in the night silence, "Do you have the package…"

Kokuei stepped out from the shadows, "Yes, here is the package. Do you have the payment?"

The ninja reached into his pockets and threw an envelope to Kokuei. "Here is your payment… Now the package…"

Kokuei lobbed the package over and said to the carrier, "Oh and you might want to send some hunter-nins the chain twins were found in Konoha."

The Mist ninja inspected the package, nodded to him, and left leaving his words in the air, "Word taken…"

* * *

Kinji cheered as they walked back home: they had completed their first C-ranked mission! Rikou smiled at Kinji as he paraded around the team. Harii and Kokuei simply shook their heads, _what a loud mouth he still is_, thought Harii. 

Harii pushed up his glasses again, and yawned. It had been a while since he had slept well, last night had been riddled with nightmares, and the previous ones were sparse with the whole team on alert.

Rikou noticed his yawn, and stepped closer to Harii. "Did you have another nightmare tonight?"

Harii simply nodded and trudged on next to her. Rikou eyes lit up and gently inquired about his nightmares. Harii mumbled something that Rikou didn't quite hear. She repeated her question and was granted with the terrifying reason for his sleepless nights. She cupped her mouth and tears sprang from her eyes. Harii's eyes widen just then and silently grabbed her arm.

"Don't tell anyone else, Rikou. Please, just don't tell anyone. It's my past, I don't need any pity for It." whispered Harii.

Rikou nodded, and the both of them caught up with the team. Unfortunately, Kinji saw Rikou's tears and turned on Harii.

"What did you do to Rikou?"

Harii yawned once more, "I didn't do anything to Rikou, Kinji."

"Right then why is she crying?"

"I don't know, Kinji."

"Yeah right, apologize to her right now!"

Harii sighed and turned to Rikou, "I'm sorry Rikou."

Apparently Kinji didn't think that was enough, "You call that an apology? Why if I were her I would be beating you up by now!"

Harii yawned once more, "Kinji, please, I'm not in the mood for this shit."

Kinji reddened and faced Harii, "That's it! I'm going to show you not to mess with Rikou or me!"

Kokuei paused to look at the commotion and immediately scanned the surrounding area. Meanwhile Rikou stomped and tried to break the fight, but Kinji shoved her away. Harii caught her, muttered an apology and pushed her away from the fight. Kinji fell into the standard Jyuuken taijutsu stance with his Byakugan activated, while Harii jumped backwards and held his arms crossed at the wrists, his right hand fisted and his left open on top. He breathed out _ten no yuugou_.

Kinji charged, swiping left and right; Harii dodged everyone except for the last which was a palm thrust to his chest. Harii grabbed the wrist with his left hand and punched the captured palm with his right. Kinji howled in pain as his hand started to spasm. Harii calmly stepped backwards and returned to his initial stance, he breathed out slowly. Kinji's hand stopped twitching and Kinji charged once again, this time jabbing at various points on Harii's body. Harii moved in, swiping some jabs away, while punching the wrists of others. Kinji jumped backwards and flicked his hands many times.

Rikou was shocked; she never saw such taijutsu techniques that could counter the Jyuuken. It seemed that ever since Harii's defeat when he was facing the Jyuuken, he was striving to find a way to counter it. It seemed to be a mixture of Goken, an imitation of Jyuuken, and speed. It was ingenious, though, in the simplicity of the techniques: dodge the ones you can, block the others with open hands, and attack with fists in pressure and chakra points. However Rikou noticed that no chakra was used at all in the imitations. _Weird, _she thought.

Kinji charged once more and Harii dodged them, all the while trying to talk some sense into him. "Damn it Kinji, this isn't you! What's wrong damn it! You aren't like this! Snap out of it!"

Kinji fell into the Hakke stance and prepared himself; Harii jumped backwards and fell into the initial stance once more. "Damn! Kinji if you don't snap out of it, I'll have to take you down!" Harii made half-fists with both hands and positioned one extended and another tucked.

Kinji rushed at Harii attempting the first stage of Hakke. However Harii disappeared and reappeared behind him. Kinji turned, and Harii thrust a half-fist into his chest, incanting _kurai tenshi-_

"Stop! I canceled the genjutsu!" yelled Kokuei.

Harii released his stance and drew a kunai, all the while observing Kinji for any signs of hostility. Kinji collapsed and fell unconscious, landing on the dirt with a faint _thump_. Raucous laughter filled the clearing, as the chain twins made their appearance.

"So you found out… about our genjutsu… that we used to manipulate the brat… no wonder you are a jounin… too bad… you've led yourself into a trap…" The one on the left held the tiger seal, then suddenly where Kokuei was standing sealed paper appeared spewing green gas. Kokuei coughed and swore as he jumped out of the cloud. He landed heavily and coughed once more before cursing again.

"Crap… Paralyzing gas…crap… you guys will have to run for it…"

Rikou ran over to Kokuei as Harii pulled Kinji over to the jounin. Kokuei's eyes widened as he saw them disobey his orders.

"What are you guys doing! You guys… aren't strong enough… to beat them!"

Harii turned to face the jounin replied, "Sorry, but we just can't leave you here to die, sensei. It'll be better if we stall until you recover enough so that you can finish them." Harii paused and drew a crescent shaped shuriken. "Rikou, I'm sorry you had to see that. But now… Rikou, do your thing, I'll protect you."

Rikou nodded and flicked out her hands unsheathing two long daggers. With an exhale Rikou rushed at the twins, Harii closely following behind. The twins guffawed at their advance at whipped their chains at them. Rikou flicked her hands again flinging the daggers at the twins; she twisted and threw kunai at the chains. The twins dodged and withdrew the chains, crying out in pain as the kunai embedded in chains sliced their arms. Cursing they charged whipped out their chains, running their fingers over them. Rikou flicked seals at them, only to find the chains maneuvered out of the way. Rikou shook her hands to let gauntlets fall into her hands. She opened her palm and made to grab the chains, when she saw the chains sprout spikes. Cringing she braced for the impalement. She heard a distinctive crackle and saw Harii in front of her, crouched, arms open.

_Raiton: Denkou no tan no jutsu_, exhaled Harii, "Go Rikou! I've got you covered." Harii stood up, his hands slightly glowing from his jutsu. His pointer finger was bent and lightning sprouted from his wrist.

Rikou snapped out of her shock and continued closing the gap towards the twins. She returned her gauntlets back to their hidden places and formed the seals needed. She incanted, _Taka no hikou no jutsu! _She disappeared and reappeared randomly inching closer with each disappearance. Every time she appeared she threw a volley of shuriken at them before disappearing. Yet every time one of the twins would block her attack, while the other would concentrate on Harii.

Meanwhile, Harii canceled his jutsu and slipped out four crescent shaped shuriken. He smirked, formed the tiger seal, and threw the shuriken at the second twin. As soon as the twin batted away the shuriken, Harii spoke, _San ichi tsukigata shuuki no jutsu! _The crescent, instead of falling to the ground, flew back to him. He caught it skillfully and continued his cycle. Harii peeked at Rikou and saw her reappear for the last time, forming new seals. Harii canceled his jutsu, fingered his hooked chain, and crouched in front of Rikou, facing the chain chuunin.

Harii appeared under her crouched once more; she stepped on him and pushed off. Completing the last seal she incanted, _Kakusa buki arashi no jutsu!_ The sky darkened as thousands upon thousands of weapons appeared in the sky. She dropped her arm to the twins and the onslaught began. As if a cyclone landed, the various weapons swirled to the twins, drilling them in one giant funnel. She landed and jumped back as she saw the twins unharmed.

"Ha! Too bad your jutsu couldn't defeat our twin twirling chain defense!"

Rikou kindly replied, "I may not have, but Harii has."

The twins looked down to find Harii crouched down, his fingers fiddling with a small chain. He looked up and smirked, "You've shown me your chain, how about I show you mine?"

Harii arched his chain around restricting both nin, one of the hooks digging into their flesh. Harii took his one end of the chain and held the dragon seal, _Kusari no nagare no jutsu! _Sparks erupted from his fingers and surged down the chain's length towards the chuunin. As the current reached the end, it surged once more causing stray sparks to fly. Harii smirked and withdrew the chain, ripping out the hooked end. He was however shocked to find the missing-nin smiling.

"Brother… Has it been that long… since we have shed our own blood…"

"Yes… It riles up me… It makes me… It makes me want theirs…"

"Agreed brother… Let's show them… the true reason… we are strong…"

They stretched and the one on the right punched Harii, sending him flying. They cackled and turned on to Rikou. She gulped visibly and incanted, _Hayabusa no hikou no jutsu _and _Aaku tsubasa no jutsu._ Multiple copies of her appeared along with an illusion of birds, cooperating to attack them. The twins glanced at each other and dispersed ripping the false clones apart with their chains. The illusion of birds flickered and was ignored. They regrouped again with their hands on Rikou's shoulders.

The one on the left snickered, bent down, and whispered in her ear, "I want… you to scream… I want… you to beg… for mercy… I want… to taste your blood!" He raised his chain and brought it down on Rikou, tearing her into arm, bursting into a bloody mess. She stifled a scream, her bodily functions non-responsive due to their blood thirst.

The left one brought it up again, when the right stopped him. He motioned to the struggling form of Harii as he rose to his knees, his eyes burning eerily.

The left snorted, "Watch me… as I kill… this wench… in front of you…"

Harii's mind flew back to the Incident at those words, mouth silently moving in a mute mantra. He remembered the blood, the face of helplessness, the pain of the experiment. His mind refocused on the present as Rikou failed to smother a whimper of pain. His eyes burned, and his brain seemed to spasm. One moment the chain was striking downwards, the next the chain shattered as he wrapped his fingers around them. Rikou fell unconscious as the pain overtook her, Morpheus shielding her eyes from the unleashing.

The twins backed up and the one on the left held the dog seal. _Seishin kusari no jutsu!_ His body morphed into a wicked chain: a jagged arrowhead end, spinning shears for a body, and the unmistakable secretion of poison from the head. Together they made a horrifyingly deadly image. The chuunin swung at him, the chain maneuvering by itself, coiling and twisting in one general direction: Harii.

Harii checked Rikou's injuries with a glance and once more the brain spasm occurred. Unbeknownst to himself his eyes flickered, before they had ceased and glowed emerald. Instinct took over rationality as his hands flew into an unknown series of seals. His instinct screamed _Emerarudo Kaihou: Denkou no Nage Yari no jutsu_, as his mind whispered _Emerarudo Kaihou: Denkou no Nage Yari_, as his mouth spoke _Emerarudo Kaihou: Denkou no Nage Yari_. A scream of lightning formed as his hands became outstretched. Harii looked at his hands to see two lengths of pure lightning gripped. Glancing back to the twins, he combined them and drew back his arm and catapulted the javelin.

The lightning flew straight through the living chain and the wielder, turning the chain back to his human form. The twins flew back as the javelin's momentum forced them backwards. The javelin started to pulsate as it impaled the twins. The quivering evolved into a roar as the javelin discharged into the bodies. Writhing was the only answer to such a punishment.

* * *

Kokuei had observed all of this as he remained paralyzed; he even observed the collapse of Harii as he fell unconscious to the overload of chakra used. To say that he was shocked was an understatement, he had heard of Kekkei Genkai with the ability to enhance jutsus but this was different. It just didn't enhance the jutsu, it created an original attack. And this was after he overcame the shock of seeing the color of the lightning: emerald. He had thought they were all wiped out by the lack of heirs and amount of attacks attempted on them. To think that Harii was one was mind blowing. His hand twitched just then, and soon he was free of the gas. He ran over to Harii and Rikou and checked their condition. They had done well to stall, heck, they did well enough to beat them. The teamwork shown by the two of them was astonishing; most likely even more if Kinji was able to collaborate with them. Certainly their teamwork was chuunin level if not approaching jounin. Taking out a health pack he patched up Rikou to the best of his abilities and carried the two of them over to Kinji. As he reached down to pick up Kinji, he felt intruders. Turning he saw a team of hunter-nin come and dispose of the body. The team leader stepped away from the body and spoke to Kokuei. 

"Thank you for taking care of these missing-nin, we hope they were not much trouble."

"Not much trouble at all, my students did all of the work. Now I must be going now, they need medical attention."

"Thank you once again, and may your journey be safe and swift."

* * *

Harii woke up with a start, the green flash of light from his dream, blurring his vision. He heard a scuffle of feet and saw Kinji and Rikou beside his bed. Harii smiled, 

"Hey."

Rikou hugged him and started to ramble, "Oh! Thank you so much Harii! How are you feeling? You were out for a whole week! They said you were chakra-depleted, and that you almost died!"

Harii blushed and muttered some incoherent words. Kinji smiled weakly and spoke up, "Look Harii, I'm sorry for attacking you like that; I wasn't myself at that moment."

Harii looked up and smiled, "No problem, those chain guys were stupid to use you. I mean seriously you're dumb but not _that _dumb!" Kinji protested, but ended laughing.

Rikou pulled back, and the three of them smiled. They had survived their first C-mission! They sat down and talked for while, life stabilizing for them as they recovered (or rather Harii recovered) from their adventure. The door opened in the middle of a discussion involving new plans of attacks and new techniques they could create, and Kokuei stepped in. He cleared his throat, "I'm sorry to interrupt this congratulatory event but the Hokage wants to see you Harii as soon as possible," He looked at Harii sternly, "Disobey your commander again, and you might pay with the lives of your teammates. But in that situation I'll excuse it." Kokuei winked.

Harii nodded and moved to get up, but was pushed back down by Rikou and Kinji. He glared at them and Rikou shrugged. "What? The Hokage didn't say now, now did he?"

Harii simply shook his head and relented. _Teammates._

* * *

It was a full day before his teammates had let him out of the hospital and even then he had to slip past. Rikou had kept confronting Harii about his nightmares, until Harii had enough and exploded at her, which had resulted in many tears and many apologies. Soon it was time for this escape. Discarding evasiveness after he lost sight of them, Harii had rushed out of the hospital as quick as he can for two reasons: 

1.In case Rikou (the main problem) changed her mind

2.He despised hospitals with a passion.

Sure hospitals were helpful and lifesavers, but did they have to be so… cold? It could've been thirty degrees outside but he would feel like it was ten in his room. And those staring nurses and doctors, really couldn't they be less discreet? He knew he was different, but he wasn't a freak. He shook his head and focused on his task at hand: meeting with the Hokage.

He climbed up the stairs to the Hokage's office, nodding at the busy secretary by the doors. He breathed in and opened the door. The Hokage seemed to be busy signing forms, his liver spotted face scrunched in frustration. Harii closed the door, and the Hokage looked at him and smiled.

"Ah! Finally, I thought I would have to drag you up here by myself," he grinned, "Unfortunately it had to be on your birthday. Well, now that you're here, sit down; I need to tell you something." The Sandaime motioned for the chair near the desk, which was straining under the sheer amount of paper placed upon it.

The Sandaime sighed and put down his pen. He got up and walked over to another chair near the desk. Dropping into it, he stared into Harii's eyes. "I'm sorry if this creeps you out, but these eyes I am looking at are one of the great Kekkei Genkai's. You Harii are special in that you have the _emerarudo no me_, the emerald eyes. This eye holds the key to your highest capabilities. Have you heard of the Suigyoku clan?" Harii shook his head, "Yes well that's because few know of them nowadays. They had died out around the time I became Hokage for the first time. In their prime they were master ninjas, able to perform tasks difficult for even the experienced ANBU teams many years their senior. The eye gave them specific powers according to the inheritor. You see it made them elemental specialists: the eye super powered an elemental affinity and gave it an emerald aspect. I believe the last of the Suigyoku was had a fire affinity, so in his case whenever he used his eye and fire jutsus the resulting jutsu was more powerful and spew emerald flames. But now to the real reason: the Yondaime gave me this to give you, when 'something crazily powerful' occurs to you." The Sandaime pulled out a letter from his sleeves and gave it to Harii, "And don't worry, only Kokuei knows about your bloodline limit and he won't disclose it to anyone. I believe this is the end of our meeting for today, Harii. Good day, I really must get back to these request forms." Harii got up thanked the Hokage and silently excused himself.

He didn't stop walking until he reached apartment. He leaned against the wall and opened the letter. It read:

_Dear Harii,_

_I hope you are fine when you get this. I am writing this as I am preparing to go and beat that nasty kyuubi. Anyways let's get to the point now won't we? If you're seeing this letter then you are obviously aware of your power. The emeral_his _d eye. A most devastating bloodline skill that is almost extinct. Well don't worry about it, as long as your still that Harii I knew then I know you won't abuse it. And on the scenario that you don't… well let's just say I'll come back as a ghost and haunt you. Digressing again… crap well this is my last piece of help for you: go visit that decrepit house near Training Grounds 4. Before I go, I must ask you to look over Naruto from time to time; he is the hero who saved the village. Look at the time! Bye Harii, I hope you have a happy life._

_Yondaime_

Tears formed and fell down Harii's cheeks. He clutched the letter tightly to his chest and went in his apartment. A rustling sound could be heard as Harii gingerly placed the letter away. He headed for Training Grounds 4, tears streaming behind him as he ran.

By the time he got there the sun was low in the sky, and the ruins cast a spooky array of shadows. Harii entered and walked into the center courtyard. A flood of memories surged to his mind. Harii walked to the shrine and saw the altar. He fell to his knees and wept, memories locked, emerged from the depths of his mind.

* * *

A/N: Heh, told you I'd be quick . Two chapters in one day sweet! This is all thanks to my Beta, go Morier! Well, the thing with this chapter is that I'm not really satisfied with it. -.-  
Made up my mind though . Alright, it's time to go back to my finals and Chapter 4! 

Translations:  
_Katon: Gokakyu no jutsu - _Fire Release: Grand Fireball Technique  
_Hitokage houshutsu - _Soul Release (It's really Man's Shadow Release but eh)  
_Ten no Yuugou - _Celestial Fusion  
_Denkou no tan -_ Edge of Lightning  
_Taka no hikou - _Flight of the Hawk  
_San ichi tsukigata shuuki no jutsu_ - Crescent Cycle  
_Kakusa buki arashi no jutsu_ - Hidden Weapon Storm  
_Kusari no nagare no jutsu_ - Current of the Chains  
_Hayabusa no hikou no jutsu _- Flight of the Falcon  
_Aaku tsubasa no jutsu_ - Arch Wings  
_Seishin kusari no jutsu - _Spirit Chain  
_Emerarudo Kaihou: Denkou no Nage Yari no jutsu - _Emerald Release: Javelins of Lightning

Phew that's a lot of translations. Heh, until next time.

AibohphobiA


	5. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: The view of the audience blurs and clears to the author sitting in a desk, in a bedroom. The author's back faces said audience, and he seems to be writing something. A member of the audience coughs, and he turns around surprised.

"Oh… wow… can't an author get any privacy? Geez… well as you can see I'm a bit busy for your trivialities. He looks beyond the audience and squints. Oh… yeah… I need to do that… I don't really want to get sued now do I? Alright, the works of Harry Potter and Naruto are not mine; they are the creations of J.K. Rowling and Masashi Kishimoto. Alright have fun reading this new chapter, as for me; I **have **to get back to studying."

The author returns to his simpleminded scratching as the view fades once more.

Chapter 4

A cry of victory interrupted the peaceful afternoon as a figure rose from the ground, flopping himself on grassy courtyard. Harii sighed in relief as he lay on the grass. Finally, he was out! A chuckle rose from his chest which soon escalated into full blown laughter. He was out!

The crunching of leaves soon ended his short lived joy as his hands fell into his Denkou no Tan technique. He got to his feet and immediately crouched; few went near the ruins, nonetheless _in_ them. Just as he tensed to strike, a familiar voice stopped him,

"Yo."

"Kokuei-sensei!"

"So this is where you isolated yourself, pretty cozy if I say so myself," Kokuei said as he soaked in the view. While the ruins scattered the scenery, it did little to take away from the picturesque courtyard. "I was taking my afternoon stroll passing by the old Suigyoku abode when I heard a yell. So being the curious me, I went over and checked it out. Surprise, it was you."

Harii opened his mouth to talk, but stopped seeing Kokuei shake his head, "Why don't you tell everyone where you been in the assigning room eh?"

Harii pushed up his glasses, "Why are we going there for?"

"Ah, well I found you at a good time, we were about to be assigned a mission this afternoon. You think you're up for it?"

Harii nodded and a moment later they disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

Harii entered the assigning room, to be punched by worried Kinji and hugged by screaming Rikou.

"Damn it, Harii, do you hafta go and brood? I mean the news you got from the Hokage, couldn't be _that_ bad, now could it?" Kinji teased.

Rikou backed him up by adding, "Harii! You worried all of us, disappearing like that! Kinji and I were about to go and track you down, when Kokuei told us that you were fine! Where were you these past weeks."

Harii chuckled, and was punched once again by Kinji. Falling, he laughed even harder, as he looked at the duo. "'Kinji and I' huh?" Harii smirked, "Funny I'd thought that my absence would, uh… _enhance_ your relationship, especially with all that pent up sexual tension." Harii's eyebrows wiggled suggestively.

Kinji and Rikou blushed, though Rikou hid it better. Harii laughed, picked himself up, and smirked at the two of them. "I'll tell you guys later, but for now… well are you guys ready for another mission?"

The three of them smiled, and Kinji spoke up, "Yeah! But this time, no more injuries alright? I bruise easily."

The team burst into laughter, even the Hokage, eavesdropping in the reunion smiled.

"Alright then, time for business," the Hokage interrupted, "your mission is to escort this man," at this he gestured to the man to his left, "to the Wind country. Sounds simple enough, but this man is an important one to the Sand. After all, he is one of their chief ninjutsu creators. Do not lose him, otherwise the Sand will have our heads. Alright this is a C-ranked mission, though a high ranked one, you are qualified enough to complete it. The mission starts now!"

The team and the man exited the room, and introduced themselves to the man.

"Hey, name's Majikku Sakusei, an' I need ta be escorted ta tha Wind country. The Hidden Village ta be correct."

"Hello my name is Kokuei and this is the team you'll be protected by: Kinji, Rikou, and Harii." All three gave their greetings and scrutinized the man. He was of a thin, weak build; unusually pale and wearing a long white doctoral suit. He also was balding, giving him the appearance of an eccentric scientist. Harii shivered at the thought, old habits died hard. Kokuei spoke again, "Well let's get going, all of us are packed, wait, here Harii, "Kokuei handed him his backpack, "I dropped by your apartment and packed for you."

"Thanks, Kokuei."

"No problem, alright let's get going!"

The five of them walked out of the building.

"Alright Harii, tell me where you were all this time?"

Harii pushed up his glasses and cleared his throat, "Kinji…"

"No stalling! I want to hear it now!"

Harii rolled his eyes, "I was about to tell you before you rudely interrupted me. Now quiet, this'll take a while…

_Harii wiped his shed tears and got up, exploring the courtyard. Disappointed by the state of the surrounding walkways, Harii diverted his attention to the altar. Stepping closer, Harii saw a few shallow scratch marks near the base of the altar. Touching it, he saw it lower and was greeted by the low sound of moving stone. The altar moved back, revealing a set of stone stairs descending beneath the ground. Pushing up his glasses Harii treaded down the stairs to a large square room, lit by torches. An emerald beam encompassed him from the ceiling, and spread out to the torches, turning the fire emerald. Pausing in stupefaction, Harii noticed a hallway appearing in front of him. He took a step, and quickly turned as the sound of stone alerted him. The light at the end of the stairs dimmed as a brown slab rose, followed by a blue one from the right, then a clear one from above, then a red one from the left, then a yellow one from below, and finally an emerald one from above. Harii was shocked and rushed to the slab, eyes sifting for any way out. All he saw was a pentagram, with gems of different color as its vertexes and a flourish of writing below._

_**None but the elements themselves shall overcome this obstacle **_

Harii rolled his eyes, straightforward at most. He bent his forefinger and incanted, Denkou no Tan_. Electricity sprouted and Harii slashed the slab… and nothing happened. Not even a scratch was inflicted on the slab. Harii stepped back again and cursed._

Harii rolled his eyes, straightforward at most. He bent his forefinger and incanted, 

_Harii sighed, one minute he was weeping, the next he's stuck underground. Reluctantly Harii turned, _oh well, no way but forward. _And so he went, taking out a kunai, just in case._

"Whoa, what happened next?" Kinji interrupted.

Harii pushed up his glasses, and jumped to another limb, "I was walking…"

_He had counted 125 paces, when he reached the next room; or rather walkway. He had to shield his eyes from the amount of light in the room. Once the spots had dispersed enough, Harii looked up to find a large glass hemisphere with an unnatural amount of emerald flames covering the entire ceiling, a man-made sun. _

_Leaning on the rail, Harii looked down, gazing at the massive library below. Directly below him was a secluded reading area – fitted with a set of furniture, beyond that were scores of scores of shelves. It was breath-taking._

"Heh, Rikou would've fainted," Kinji smirked.

Rikou threw a glare at him, but said nothing as she urged Harii to continue.

_Harii tore his eyes away from the sight and walked down the stairs to the furniture. Harii was pretty sure the library was empty, after all trespassers would've triggered the scan. Or at least he hoped it would, most families kept their secrets safe, being the paranoid ninjas they were. Harii pushed up his glasses, the atmosphere here seemed to comfort him in a way only his team would._

_Harii's mind raced! His team! What would they do once they found he was missing? What would the Hokage do? The Hokage, of course! His watching sphere! Harii had seen the sphere on his desk during the times he was called by the Hokage. Harii calmed down a little, the only thing he could do now, he reasoned, was to get pass the slab or at least another way out._

_Harii found himself past the furniture and in front of a glowing pedestal. Again there was writing near the bottom of the panel. And again it bore the scratching words: _

**_None but the elements themselves shall overcome this obstacle  
_**

_It almost drove him mad. Well, he thought, at least it shows something this time. And show it did, the map displayed the entrance and the entire library. Apparently the library was a pentagon, with five exits and one winding staircase in the middle. Harry moved away from the pedestal and began to search the exits, passing rows and columns of shelves of books. In one he found a herbarium and a large plain. Another led to an underground lake and hot springs. And yet another sent him to a cavern-shaped room, padded with reflective crystals. The last two passages, and coincidentally the closest to the passageway he entered from, were a disappointment. One was caved in and the other led to a large cavern shielded by a vociferous waterfall. Seeing no other place to look but down; Harii gradually walked back to the staircase. Harii looked down and slowly descended into the depths of the strange place. _

_Harii stumbled as he mistook the floor as a step and placed a hand on the wall to balance him. The torches flickered on and Harii came face to face with a wall. To each of his sides were two doors, both screens, yet were thick enough to filter out any light from the other side. Or rather if any light was on the other side._

_Harii spun his kunai on his finger; letting it slowly stop to his right. Harii gripped the kunai and continued forward and slipped inside of the room. He felt déjà vu overcome him as his eyes readjusted to the light residing in the room. The black spots eventually faded, and Harii found himself in a large room, around half the size of the library was. The walls were padded with cloth, and the ceiling was similar to the library. Instead of a large hemisphere though, there were smaller globes of light floating along the length of the room, covering every centimeter of the place with an equal amount of light. Harii nodded his head at this and backed out of the room deciding to explore the final room. He opened the screen and found himself facing a large ceremonial wall, covered by a large pentagon. Harii pushed his glasses up, he was going to be here for a while…_

Harii ended his tale with an exhale. Kinji looked impressed, "Dang, you got lucky. The Hyuuga's only have a huge library, and we were one of the first!"

Harii shook his head, jumping from tree to tree, following Kokuei and Sakusei in the front. "So Rikou, what's with the new chick on your head?"

Rikou's contemplative expression changed into one of delight. "Oh! So you noticed! Well as a congratulation on my first C-ranked mission my family gave me this golden falcon. I named him Fenikkusu, fitting isn't it? Well he's my animal companion, a great guy for battle, you'll see!"

Kinji shook his head, "Seriously, she doesn't shut up about that bird, I thought I'd get a moment of peace from that bird, but…" Kinji gestured.

Rikou's lips tighten and punched Kinji. "Oi! You almost made me lose my balance!"

"And you almost hurt Fenikkusu's feelings." retorted Rikou. Harii shook his head, they were still fighting. He sped up to them and laid his hands on them, calming both of them down.

"Geez, it must have been a war zone when I was gone. Let's calm you both down, we're older than this."

"Hey, I'll have you know I didn't start any of them!"

Rikou rolled her eyes and punched Kinji. "Oi! You almost made me lose my balance!"

"Quit lying then!" retorted Rikou.

Harii pushed his glasses up again, and rolled his eyes. Things were back to normal.

It was nightfall when they had reached the border between the Fire and Wind country. They had set camp up quickly, were currently huddled around the fire as Kokuei gathered kindling for the fire. The genin (meaning Rikou and Kinji) started to question Sakusei.

Smiling he answered, "Let's see here… Yes, No, Yes, No, No, Yes, Absolutely Not, and Miso soup with lots of beef."

Chuckling Harii, asked him one question that the others had been thinking of, "So Sakusei, what made you have us escort you? Surely the Sand could come and pick you up with their ninja."

"Well, the nin from the Sand are quite busy at the moment, so they decided to pay Konoha for an escort."

Rikou looked up and asked, "So why were you in Konoha in the first place?"

Sakusei smiled, "Well I was there, because it was my niece's birthday."

Rikou soon changed the topic to one about jutsu, when Kinji and Harii both tuned out. Harii turned to Kinji and inquired, "So what have you been doing this past month?"

"Heh, well I went back to my father and trained up a bit. Got to meet my little sister again, cute little girl. My byakugan also improved, I can now see things fifty meters away perfectly, though I can't see anything at a hundred meters. It's my goal before the end of the month. You?"

"Well I got this new bunshin I'm itching to try out. It's like the one Kokuei uses, except it has a special surprise when it dies."

"Heh, right… Anyway I forgot to ask you before you went all incognito, what was that taijutsu I saw?"

"Oh, it was something I was trying to use to counter your Jyuuken. I mean it's almost impossible to fight against it with taijutsu. It's like my way of evening out the scales."

"Heh, well you'll be surprised at how shocked my dad was when I told him that. I swear he was about to faint when he heard about how you managed to disable my Jyuuken."

The boys were about to continue, when Sakusei excused himself, saying it was time for him to go to bed. The genin yawned and agreed to his decision. One by one each genin wriggled into their sleeping bags by the fire and soon the sole sound in camp was the dying embers of the fire.

Kinji woke with a start from his dreams. He was just about to kill the big bad ninja boss when a groan ended his dream. Kinji got out from under the sleeping bag and twisted his neck trying to find Harii's sleeping figure. He found him and jumped over the fire pit to him. Rikou and Kokuei joined him near Harii's side. Kokuei nodded to Rikou and went to guard Sakusei. Rikou placed a hand on Harii's chest to wake him, but Kinji snatched it away. A second later an electric charge coursed through Harii's body. Rikou and Kinji stepped back, in fear of being electrocuted, when Kinji saw Harii's hands.

From underneath the gloves, Harii's pale hands were even more unnatural, as they started to grow paler and started glowing. His hands spasmed up to his sides and crucified him to the ground. Artificial lightning seared and serrated his body as it wreaked havoc on the boy. His back started to spasm, bucking his body against the ground. Sparks began to fly from his hands, dissipating when they neared the ground. Streaks of electricity rose from his hands, curving towards the ground, charring the surrounding area black. As soon as it started, it stopped, but not before another spasm attack shook his entire being.

Rikou sobbed and Kinji hugged her, guiding them both to his body cautiously. Harii groaned once more, and slowly sat up. His eyes wearily opened and Harii slowly clasped his hands, trying to calm them down. Kinji saw the pain in Harii's eyes, and gripped his shoulders.

"Hey, you alright?"

Harii slowly nodded, but soon twisted his face as he turned around and began to eject his previous meal. He turned back and wiped his mouth, only to turn back and dry heave upon the ground. The heaves soon lessened to gasps which became coughs.

Rikou ran to her pack and returned to Harii giving him a cup of water. Kinji steadied Harii, as he drank, watching him gulp down the whole glass. Kinji took the glass from Harii once he thought Harii had enough, and placed it down near the fire pit.

"Harii, you alright man?"

Harii coughed once more and nodded, going to the nearby spring to clean himself. Kinji looked at Rikou and nodded at her to go back to sleep. Rikou reluctantly returned to her sleeping bag, but not before sobbing in Kinji's arms. Kinji turned from her and joined Harii by the lake.

Kinji leaned his head back on a trunk and sighed, he was tired sure but Harii… Harii was in pain. Kinji always had a soft spot for troubled people. That was one reason why he was so attached to his sister; she was the 'disappointment' in the family. He turned his white pupil-less eyes to Harii, sitting next to him, eyes closed, hands still trembling. Kinji stared at the twitching hands. What a mystery… Generally Kinji had never liked mysteries – he never had the patience for them – yet Harii had intrigued him. His aura exuded normalcy, but his dreams alluded trauma.

Instinctively Kinji activated his Byakugan. He immediately closed his eyes and reopened them. Harii had definitely drawn him in, Harii was different. Normally when he observed people under the Byakugan, he would see their chakra system. Yet when he gazed upon Harii, he seemed to contain two chakra systems. One was bluish white, the color of body chakra, yet the other was a rainbow, leading to everywhere on the body, but was largest to the hands and head. The result of them being together blinded him at first glance, but lessened as his eyes got used to the light. Harii was powerful, that was true, but to think his body containing more energy than any other's was outstanding. Kinji looked once more at Harii's hands and shivered. His hands had channels of nothing one should have. There was one huge spray of unnatural channels in Harii's hands. As they shook he saw not chakra moving them, but pure lightning, Kinji shivered once more, Harii was living a life of pain. Kinji released his jutsu and saw Harii's questioning gaze upon him.

"How was my chakra system?"

Kinji shivered once more, lied, "Perfectly fine, everything's normal, well except for your hands." He couldn't resist adding that in, it was too terrible to lie about.

Harii nodded to himself, "It's to be expected." Harii closed his eyes and opened them a minute later, "It's time to go Kinji, let's go."

Kinji nodded and followed Harii back to camp.

Harii closed his eyes, willing the memories to disappear, to vanish in the depths of his mind. Harii's spine shivered at the remembrance of the Incident. For weeks his eyes were shadowed by memory of the experiment. For months his dreams were possessed by the images, by the blood, by the pain. For years his mind had buried them deep within. And yet, now they resurfaced an ill omen of what to come. His mind slipped its grasp and fell into the memories.

He was coming home with his friends, his childhood friends when It appeared before them, whisking them away without a word.

He woke in a dark room, one filled with pain and fear, one with screams and sobs. He looked to his right and saw his best friends. He looked to his left and saw his fellow orphans. He looked up and saw hooks. He looked down and saw blood. He looked forward and saw It working on a screaming girl. It was smiling; It looked at him and smiled. He closed his eyes and saw Its smile. He screamed.

He woke again, and found himself starting into its eyes. His eyes widened as It's face smirked and Harii was moved to look at his companions. It spoke suimin nashi no jutsu and Harii's eyes tingled. It than began to torture Harii with sights one should never see. Harii wanted to close his eyes, he wanted to sleep, he wanted to fall unconscious. Yet he never achieved them. Harii's eyes burned with each failed experiment, with each failed subject, with each death of his friends.

Then it was his turn.

Harii was stripped and dragged to a metal pole. Harii gasped at the coldness and shivered at what was coming. His hands were drawn to his sides, in likeness to the crucifix behind him. He screamed as he felt metal kunai drove themselves through his hands, pinning them to the metal crucifix. He saw It step back as part of the floor dropped. No it was his part of the floor rose. He heard the distant growl of thunder as it rose higher and higher. The ceiling opened and Harii was revealed to the dark night. Thunder and lightning surrounded Harii as rain enveloped him. Pain washed over his arms as the rain flowed past his hands. He whimpered as thunder clapped nearby. He drew in his breath and his world became one of eternal pain.

Lightning seared through the sky straight for Harii. As it neared his head however, it branched off and struck his hands, sending millions of volts of energy coursing through his body. Just as it started it ended, Harii shuddered against the wind. His world receded into pain again. Lightning, twisted by fate, struck him once again, discharging in his hands, throughout his body. It ended once more, in utter bliss. Pain serrated through his body once more as lightning pushed the limits of nature. His eyes still burned from the ineptness to sleep, to fall unconscious. His body soon drowned in pain as the fourth, final, and strongest bolt shattered the law of the natural.

Harii stared lifelessly out, his eyes glowing slightly. The glow receded soon as Harii saw the Hokage step towards him, his face marred by pain, one that seemed nonexistent to Harii's.

Harii opened his eyes to find his body had moved on its own accord to the Sand village. Harii sighed, the mission was almost over.

A/N: Ouch... I feel kinda bad for doing that to Harii... Well anyway now that I have uh... satisfied my Beta's curiosity about the Incident, I can now go and work on more filler chapters and the next sequence of the references to the Incident. Finals are almost over and now the only thing left are parties and more parties.

Translations:  
Denkou no Nage Yaki - Javelins of Lightning  
Denkou no Tan - Edge of Lightning  
Suimin Nashi no jutsu - It's technically "without sleep" but let's say it's Insomnia eh?

Thanks again to all the reviewers and my Beta. Sorry for not uploading earlier! FFnet document upload glitched on me-.-

Until Next Time

AibohphobiA


	6. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: A group of people huddled around a single television. The screen blurred and focused to a person at the party. Said person realized his new eavesdroppers and smiled,

"Well! Finals are over and school's out! PARTY! Since I'm occupied at the moment let's get this over quickly. I don't own anything relating to Harry Potter or Naruto. They belong to their respective creators, Rowling and Kishimoto. Alright now scat! I gots a party to enjoy!"

The television screen glitches and blurs into nothing.

Chapter 5

Sakusei led them from the gates of the village to the Kazekage Observatory. He turned and twisted through the multitude of alleys emerging from it five minutes later. Harii looked up at the tall cylindrical building and noticed the small spinning instruments extruding from the dome roof. He pushed up his glasses and squinted to see a baggy eyed kid looking at them from a high window. He shook his head; it wasn't his place to ponder.

Sakusei entered the building and was immediately greeted by one of the ninja. He turned back to the team and smiled. "Thanks for tha escort my fellow Konoha ninjas. Maybe I'll see ya in tha future eh?"

Rikou nodded vigorously to Sakusei; she was looking forward to their next conversation about ninjutsu. Kinji noticed the sparkle in her eyes and snickered. He poked Harii and pointed to her, Harii merely blinked. Harii drifted his attention to Sakusei and nodded. Sakusei smiled and handed an envelope to Kokuei, who promptly slipped it out of sight. Harii saw Kokuei's eyes meet with Sakusei's and after a pause curtly nodded. Harii tilted his head at this, but shook his head once again.

Sakusei nodded to each of them and walked off to meet the Kazekage. Kokuei snapped everyone out of their stupor and gestured them to go. While it had been a short mission and an even shorter time knowing Sakusei, he had become a friend to them.

Kinji yawned, his obnoxious yawn and exclaimed, "Well! Now that's over with let's go and get back to Konoha for some good ol' ramen huh?"

Rikou rolled her eyes and commented, "Sheesh, one second after completing a mission and your raring for some food. Boys."

Harii tried to place an affronted face on, but failed miserably. Kokuei was the only one who noticed this as Rikou and Kinji began to bicker again. Kokuei stepped nearer to Harii and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"So, are you having those dreams again?"

Harii jolted his face up at the word 'dream' and a questioning glint surfaced in his eyes. "How do you know about that?"

Kokuei sighed and pinched his nose, "I was one of the ANBU that was assigned to detain him. I was there the night they found you on that pole."

Harii shivered once more, and looked away at the argument nearby. "If only I was normal… I could be like them, without a care in the world… Instead, I'm stuck with this _eye_ and freakish lightning abilities…"

"Heh, I know what it feels like. I, myself, was unique in my team. I was the only one who came from a non-ninja family. I always had a disadvantage against others, since I didn't have any unique jutsu. Yet as my disadvantage grew, my determination grew also. I looked past my broken stones and used them to build my future. I began trying to create a jutsu that would help me defeat anyone. After one long year, I had done it; I had created my signature jutsu. I've seen you work, Harii, you have the potential to create any jutsu you wanted. Heck you probably even have the power to back up most of those jutsu too. Just remember with enough determination, skill, and luck you can overcome anything. Think about that eh?"

Harii quietly nodded and his eyes became unfocused and clouded before sharpening again. The aura around him slowly changed, become more cheery and light. Kokuei smiled and continued walking, remembering his conversation with Sakusei.

_Kokuei entered the tent, after making sure Rikou and Kinji had Harii under their care. He turned to Sakusei and sat down, throwing him a questioning gaze._

"_How long has it been?"_

"_Since we've seen each otha? Too long."_

_Kokuei smiled, "Well if you hadn't pushed me into being a ninja I wouldn't have become one."_

"_True, but still family's family right?"_

"_Yeah, so how's cousin uncle?"_

"_Cute, she's still with that jounin, Gekkou Hayate though. He's not even a real jounin, women these days."_

"_Uncle, don't be harsh on her, at least she has a love interest."_

"_Yeah, too bad you swore abstinence after she died; you would have been a great father."_

_Kokuei shook his head and his gaze became sterner, "I saw you peeking out of your tent studying Harii in his episode, you're the specialist with ninjutsu, especially with ones relating to the mind; tell me: what should I do about Harii?"_

_Sakusei's face scrunched and slowly replied, "I'm not sure, it's obvious that he has had an extreme amount of trauma in his past, particularly one with a lot o' lightning and electricity. Was he struck by lightning?"_

_Kokuei became hesitant, "Well this is a Konoha secret so don't go blabbing uncle," Sakusei managed to look affronted, "Harii was found on top of a nondescript building crucified to a metal cross, after being struck by lightning four times in the span of four seconds."_

_Sakusei's eyes widened, "It was _his_ work wasn't it? Only _he_ could be so… so cruel."_

_Kokuei nodded, "Yes it was indeed _his_ work. We found Harii as _he_ was finishing up the experiment. Harii was stuck in the hospital for months in a coma. He had come out of it before the academy exams, though."_

_Sakusei sighed, "Those hands though, have significant importance to him for him ta hide them so. I have never seen those gloves come off. I assume that tha bolt connected at his hands?" Kokuei nodded, "While his mind maybe struggling with his past, his body, more specifically his hands are stronger. It was most likely the outcome of the experiment."_

_Sakusei paused to collect his thoughts and mold them into a solution. Kokuei stared at Sakusei while the silence lasted, urging him to give the answer. Sakusei sighed once more and spoke, "Well tha only answer I have is ta assist and guide him ta being free from tha trauma. Well it's been an eventful night, goodnight."_

_Kokuei nodded as he rested his back against the tent, listening to the genin struggle with Harii._

Kokuei shook his head; it was time to go to home. It was then that a series of events that unfolded in a matter of minutes.

Harii was grateful that Kokuei had confronted him and helped him move past his troubles. _He was right; I should stop this stupid brooding. It's time that I take my future into my hands and build the magnificent tower of my future._

While Harii was thinking to himself, he saw Kokuei stumble and apologize to someone. He soon prepared to defend him at the sight of the response.

The person who Kokuei had bumped into was a child, one with faint bags under his eyes. _Ones much like my own…_ The child stared at Kokuei and suddenly an arm of sand rose and impaled Kokuei. Blood pumped out of his chest as the realization of what had happened seeped in. Shock was written in his face as he blacked out from the pain.

Immediately Rikou appeared by Kokuei's side attempting to heal him, while Kinji and Harii stepped forward to defend them. Kinji held two kunai in his hands in a similar position to the Jyuuken. Harii slightly crouching, his hands crossed and sprouting lightning from his wrists.

The sand kid glared at Kinji, who shivered, and then to Harii. Harii locked his own eyes to the kid and delved deep into the kid's past; his eyes conveying the pain, telling Harii of the recent betrayal the kid experienced. The kid's eyes were windows to Harii, one that had been cracked from the sights he saw. The kid shook his head and sent the sand to strike them.

Harii breathed out and disappeared slicing the rushing sand. Kinji dashed to the side and opened his palms, narrowing his eyes he spoke, "_Odayaka na Dangan no jutsu!_" The two kunai righted themselves perpendicular to his palms and shot forward. As they bulleted neared the kid however, the sand swept the kunai away and turned to rush at Kinji. Harii stopped his attack and sealed out, "_Doku Bunshin no jutsu!"_

Three additional Harii's appeared and each rushed to near the kid. The sand responded by whipping out at them. They dodged and ran towards him in a three pronged approach. They were a meter from the kid when the sand rose behind them at pierced their chest. The kid smirked but was confused when each of the clones smiled. They burst and a large cloud of gas encompassed the kid. Coughing and wheezing the kid never saw the next bullet from Kinji as the handle struck the kid at the temple. The kid staggered and bits of sand broke off his face. Kinji cursed and retreated when the sand started to target him. Kinji weaved himself out and under from the massive threads of sand as they struck. Harii slipped his hand into his back container and pulled out a chain. Kinji's eyes gleamed at the chain and sought out Harii's eyes. Harii nodded back to Kinji with the tiger seal at his lips.

Kinji smirked and turned, weaving himself in and over each sand thread circling the kid. Kinji suddenly shot shuriken and kunai with his gentle bullet at the sand. The sand caught them but the concealed explosive seals burned. Multiple explosions occurred and numerous holes in the defense appeared. Harii took advantage of the holes and formed seals and spoke, _Yoake Koorasu no jutsu! _He ran two fingers over his chain and began twirling it. A low hum soon emerged from the chains. Harii twirled the chain faster and faster, and the low hum elevated to a high chirp reminiscent of a bird's chorus. The sand slowly became less fluid as the kid became disoriented at the unique sound. Harii continued twirling the chain, gesturing for Kinji to take his exit.

The kid grabbed his head and clutched them trying to force himself to focus. The sand soon dropped to the ground and trembled with each attempt. Harii twirled the chain as he stepped back; looking backwards he saw Kinji grabbing a seal covered Kokuei. Kinji gestured to hurry and Harii soon twirled the chain to a faint blur as the chirp became a cacophony of birds. Harii turned and dashed away, following Kinji into the woods that led to a maze of trees ending at Konoha village.

Harii looked backwards, searching for any signs of a pursuer, but found none. Harii breathed out a held breath and questioned Rikou, "Do you have any more of that Delayer's Seal?"

Rikou nodded and moved closer to Harii, passing a rectangular leaf of paper. "It's the only one left, Kokuei was hit pretty badly. The gash left by the sand was huge and deep, I can't heal him, we need the doctors at Konoha to operate."

Harii shook his head and placed the seal on a gash on his leg, the only scratch from his frenzied attack on the sand. Kinji shook his head and spoke up, "Why didn't you let me take out that kid?"

Harii turned his gaze on him, "You wouldn't have survived the rebuttal. That kid is more powerful than all of us together, we were lucky that my jutsu affected him so. When I left I saw that he was overcoming the jutsu so I had to amp it up more."

Kinji and Rikou shivered, Rikou spoke then, "So what are we going to do now?"

Harii bit his lip and hesitantly answered, "I don't want to do this but this is the only solution that will give us safety from that kid and getting to Konoha." Harii extended his arms to Rikou and Kinji, "Grab my arms; I'm going to increase our speed."

Rikou and Kinji grabbed Harii's arms without hesitation and waited for Harii to do something. Harii breathed in and breathed out, formed the tiger seal with his hands and spoke _Nouryoku: Gotai Nagare_. Rikou and Kinji felt a tingle rush past their hands and looked at each other. _What was that?_ Harii twisted his arms and grabbed his passengers, determination plastered on his face. Rikou and Kinji saw Harii take a step, and the rest became a blur.

Harii felt his body quicken at the technique and took a step.

Just as he had expected, he reached the tree limb all too quickly to be natural. Harii smiled, it worked!

During his – as Kokuei liked to call it – isolation; Harii discovered a unique ability he had. During his stay in the library, he found a section full of manuscripts and journals of past members of the family.

While some were ancient, all of the archives were readable, as Harii soon found out. Eventually, Harii stumbled upon the journal of the previous Suigyoku: Jigoku Shonetsu Suigyoku. He was the hot-headed prodigy of the clan. Though a prodigy, he often caused trouble for them, until one night. Jigoku's stylish handwriting had deteriorated into scribbles as he told of the incident. Harii had only worked out two words: assassination and night. Afterwards Jigoku pressed himself to the point of exhaustion to develop his abilities. Apparently every member had a few abilities corresponding to their affinity. Harii soon learned of Jigoku's method to hone the abilities and applied it to his. He soon found himself akin to a generator; his body had withstood enough electricity to create some in his body. He could then manipulate the electricity within to perform a multitude of things. One such application was the _Gotai Nagare_ – the body current.

Harii shook his head; he needed to keep his focus on the path before him. Harii sped through the thin woods into thicker ones and recognized the outer fringe of the forest: ten more kilometers and he'd reach Konoha. Harii breathed out, he was almost there.

Harii leaped to the next branch and launched, only to wince as pain seared up his legs. Three more leaps and three more winces. Harii cursed, he couldn't lose now; he was too close to let Kokuei die from his wounds in spite of the delaying seals. Harii bit his tongue as the next wave of pain serrated through his body. Harii closed his eyes and drew in a shuddering breath; he let it out painfully and sped up.

Rikou grasped Harii's arms tighter as she felt him wince. She didn't know what was happening, but she knew it was hurting Harii. She wanted him to stop so much, but she knew that if Harii slowed down they couldn't save Kokuei. She sighed and wished Harii would last.

Kinji clutched Kokuei closer to him as Harii sped up. Kokuei was surprisingly light, Kinji realized. Kinji looked over to Rikou, expecting a smile back; Rikou was always into flying and speed. Instead he saw her biting her lip as she clutched Harii harder. Kinji shifted his gaze to Harii, only to see a face of barely concealed pain. Kinji shivered, he prayed to whatever power above that Harii would survive this, for only great pain affected Harii this much.

Harii blinked away the tears in his eyes and continued running. A kilometer was all that was left, one mile. He could do it, he could – he winced as the wave of pain descended on him again. He breathed out and willed his legs to run, his arms to steady, his hands to tighten, his body to _move_.

500 meters… Step… Step…

250 meters… Step… Cough…

100 meters… Step… Gasp…

50 meters… Step… Wheeze…

10 meters… Step… Pain…

5 meters… Step… Pain…

1 meter… Step…

Harii wheezed as the last breath exhaled painfully out of his lungs. He tripped, stumbled, and sprawled himself on the road before the gates. He opened his eyes painfully and saw the gates and smiled. He could hear Rikou screaming for help, as the adrenaline ran out and pain mercifully swept him into the darkness.

Harii woke up to the faint sounds of people outside of his door.

"His other wound was easy to heal, only a simple slice. As for the other… he's lucky he's alive. His muscle and nervous structures were overloaded as if he released the first two gates. Any longer and he would have been permanently incapacitated. I'm surprised at how long he had endured the pain, damage shows he was withstanding it for a whole hour. It's all I can do for him."

"And Kokuei?"

"Thank the girl for that one, if she hadn't applied those Delayer's Seals – and what a wonderful seal technique she used too, if she's interested I'd be willing to offer her–" a pause "Right, moving on, the jounin sustained a major gash across his chest, it seemed to be caused by a sand jutsu. Though we managed to heal the gash, he is not well enough to participate in anything more rigorous than playing shogi or go. I expect him to be operational for missions in a month, two weeks before the chuunin exam. That is all."

"Thank you doctor, you may go." A shuffle was heard, "Come I expect Harii to be up by now."

The door opened and in walked the Hokage, Rikou, and Kinji. Rikou and Kinji brightened at the sight of Harii up and rushed to his side. Rikou hugged him lightly, while Kinji placed a hand on his shoulder.

The Hokage spoke, "Congratulations on completing your mission, and I wish you the best of luck on the recovery. I have to get back to my paperwork, but remember don't overwork yourself." The Hokage winked and walked out of the room.

Kinji stared at the door, until he was satisfied that the Hokage was gone. "Damn, that man's weird. Strong but weird."

Harii laughed, but winced as pain seared across his ribs. Rikou noticed and placed a hand on Harii's arm. "The doctor says not to do anything extraneous for a day. Your body's still recovering."

Kinji nodded, and Harii slowly sat up, looking at the bed-ridden Kokuei next to him. "Will he be alright?"

Kinji nodded again, "Yeah, he's sleeping for now but when he wakes up he'll have to stay in the hospital until he's all healthy again."

Silence reigned for the next few moments as the genin seemed to be lost in their thoughts. Suddenly Kinji turned to Harii and asked, "Who _was _that kid?"

Harii sighed and looked outside the window, "Gaara,"

Kinji and Rikou nodded as if that answered their question; they never noticed Harii's whispered continuation:

"Another one of the demons…"

A/N: SHYEAH! SCHOOL's OUT! Phew, well Chapter 5's out and Chapter 6 is in production.A few more fillers and the next arc will happen. 1 Kudo point to whoever guesses it! Alright now here's the translation:

Translation:  
_Odayaka na Dangan - _Gentle Bullet  
_Doku Bunshin - _Poison Clone  
_Yoake Koorasu - _Dawn Chorus (Cool thing is that this is an actual occurance caused by electricity)  
_Nouryoku: Gotai Nagare - _Ability: Body Current

Until Next Time

AibohphobiA


	7. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: The view lightens to a fancy stage, where stage hands arepreparing forthe upcoming play. A lone figure sat on the stage childishly swinging his legs. The view zooms onto the figure startling him from his carefree-osity. His eyes widened and hurriedly spoke, "Woah! Well sorry to the readers and reviewers out there! I went on a little vacation with my family and now I'm back. Looks like my breaks off so I have to go. But before I go: Any elements of Harry Potter and Naruto belong to their rightful creators: J.K.Rowling and Masashi Kishimoto." The figure leaps up and vanishes in the scurry of the hands.

Chapter 6

The entrance of autumn was blatantly apparent as the heat lessened and the trees darkened. Distant children voices echoed around the hospital as people of various sizes scurried from place to place, busy with personal business. Though summer has declined, the sky remained blue as wisps of lazy clouds drifted along. It was one of those days where Kokuei wished he was outside enjoying the view. But of course he was stuck in bed, staring out of the window cursing his burning wounds. It had been a few days since he woke from his brush with death, and they were aggravating. Kokuei sighed, he could only hope that his genin would come and take him out.

As if on cue, the door to his room opened with a bang, and in stepped the pupil-less boy. Kokuei sighed; Kinji did that every time just to annoy him. Following said annoyance; was a Chinese-attired girl with a bird and an impassive emerald-eyed boy. Kokuei shook his head and turned on the girl.

"Rikou, do you have to let him do that every time?"

The girl smiled, "Yes we do; it's entertaining for us."

Kokuei's mouth twisted and mumble, "Well it's not for me…"

Kinji smiled toothily, "Come on sensei lighten up; it's a beautiful day. It's a wonderful beautiful day…"

The emerald eyed boy's eyes scrunched and cut him off, "Kinji, no need to deafen him with your ah… unique singing talent."

Kinji shrugged and sat by the window, obscuring Kokuei's view of the sky. "I'm bored… All we've been doing is resting, resting, and more resting."

The emerald eyed boy rolled his eyes at the improper use of grammar. Kokuei turned to him, "You haven't said anything for a while, Harii, feel like the minor character of a story?"

The boy smirked lightly, "Yeah, I mean everyone knows that obnoxious and idiotic people are the protagonists of a story."

Kinji nodded but paused and cried out, "Oi!"

Rikou laughed, the little bird sitting on her shoulder imitating her. Kinji turned to glare at both of them.

When the chuckles died, Rikou turned to Kokuei and informed him, "We came by to tell you that we're going on a joint mission with the other genin teams. The Hokage said it was something about teamwork on a grander scale. You will probably see us though; we have to patrol the village until the next group of police officers is trained. It's weird though, I thought the Uchiha clan was the police, what happened to them?"

Kokuei opened his mouth to answer, but Harii beat him, "It has to do with Itachi."

The occupants of the room turned to stare at him. "What? He was one of my old classmates. We kept in touch."

Rikou shook her head and continued, "Well it doesn't matter; we still have to patrol for a while. I wonder where we're going to start." Rikou glanced at the clock in the room, "We better go; it's almost time to meet our leaders."

The boys nodded and the genin filed out of the room slowly saying their goodbyes. Harii, the last one out, nodded at Kokuei and closed the door to his room. Kokuei sighed, back to his sky gazing. Kokuei's eyes widened and cursed,

"Damn it! Kinji closed the curtains!"

* * *

Team 4 was the first one to enter the room where their new joint mission started. Kinji looked around nervously and coughed multiple times to ease his anxiety. As Rikou stepped into the room her eyes widened spectacularly and whipped her head from side to side, trying to see all of the tapestry. Harii cocked his head and swiveled until he found a particular branch of the tapestry. 

On the walls hung a magnificent tapestry, one of a giant tree branching out. At the roots lay the names of the original clans who came together to become what was now Konoha. From these roots branched out many limbs from which later families joined. Every now and then two clans would combine and rarely would the family names change. Many branches withered at a specific event, one, Harii noticed, was a slightly green-tinged branch that was labeled _Suigyoku_. However before it rapidly withered a small miniscule twig branched away; Harii stored that image in his mind for later.

The sound of the entrance door opening startled the three, who quickly turned to meet the newcomers. In walked Team 8, with their sensei in tow. Their sensei spoke something to them and left the room. Kinji's eyes widened and his mouth curved into a smirk. He sauntered over to Team 8 and proceeded to strike up a conversation with a certain female member. Said female casually smirked at Rikou and winked.

Rikou stepped forward as if to berate Kinji, when Harii placed a hand on her shoulder. Rikou turned and glared at him, daring him to interfere. Harii sighed and shook his head, he squeezed her shoulder, "It's Kinji, he can take care of himself, especially with a questionable innocent like Benzaiten Megami."

Rikou sighed and looked at the blatant flirting among the two. "She always tries to beat me at everything! First it's beating me in class work, then becoming more recognized, and now trying to get close to Kinji! I mean really!"

Harii shook his head and opened his mouth to speak when the door opened once more to allow Team 5 in, in all of their arrogance. The surprisingly humble jounin shook her head at her genin and left the room to join the jounin of Team 8.

The trio of Team 5 sauntered over to Rikou and Harii, sneering at them. The one in the center openly glared at Harii, and opened his mouth, "Sharp-Nose, why are you here? You can't seriously believe that you're a _real_ genin."

Harii's mouth twitched slightly as Rikou's lips thinned. Harii placed his foot in front of Rikou, blocking her progress towards the trio. Harii shook his head, "Look Suisama, it's not the time for this; maybe when we're not on a mission, but not here and certainly not now."

The teammate on the right arrogantly rolled his eyes. However the feminine companion right of Suisama spoke then; her falsetto voice piercing their ears. "Shut up Sharp-Nose, we don't need to deal with your ass wipe; Suisama- dono here was just stating a fact."

Harii opened his mouth to respond, but Rikou reacted to the comment first. "Clean that mouth out bitch!"

Fuu turned to Rikou and sneered at her, "Watch who you're talking to firstie!"

Rikou glared at Fuu and spit out, "Sorry if I'm proud of my parts, Fu!"

Harii and the trio simply stared at her. Fu opened her mouth to retort something vicious when the door slammed open and in walked the Hokage.

The Hokage slowly walked his way to the front and spoke surprisingly loud for one so old. "Welcome! As you all already know, the police are short on patrol so they hired us to patrol for them until their next class is ready to take over. Why they are low, well you can find out knowing your young curiosity. This mission will approximately take three days. Alright for such a schedule, we have devised a system to place every one of you at different locations equally." The Hokage paused as if he expected groans, "You will be divided into 3 genin teams. After your shift, you will report here to receive information on your next shift. Any questions before we start shift assigning?" Another pause ran uninterrupted. "Alright, Team 4; please come up to the desk."

Kinji reluctantly peeled himself from Megami and joined Rikou and Harii at the desk. The Hokage looked down to his sheet of paper and back up, "You will be patrolling the gates, keep a watchful gaze on both the village and the gates. Your responsibility is to provide intelligence on the status of the gates as well as the duties common to law enforcement. Alright you have the night shift; you start at 10. You may go."

The team nodded, accepted the outstretched sheet and walked out. They closed the door behind them and looked at each other. Kinji smiled and loudly exclaimed, "Yes! The night shift! That leaves us with 8 hours of free time!"

Rikou shook her head, "What are you so excited about? It's only free time, I mean we already had three days of rest, I think it's time for some training or some practice."

Kinji and Rikou started to argue once again; Harii sighed and pushed up his glasses, "Whatever we do will be decided by the third party within this team." Rikou stopped him mid-rant and started at Harii, "I say we go to our houses to prepare and then go hang at the Ichiraku until our shift."

Kinji had brightened up at the answer and cheerfully headed towards the Hyuuga House, waving his hand behind him. Rikou's lips thinned and walked briskly to her house. Harii ran up to her retreating form and spoke, "Sorry about that, I had to choose something relaxing, both of you needed it."

"What do you mean the _both_ _of us_ need it? Don't you mean Kinji needs it?"

"Nope, you needed it because you were all tense today from those other teams." Harii paused, "I wonder though, why?"

Rikou glared at Harii, who fell silent; even his footsteps became light as if he didn't want to anger her more. Unfortunately his presence voided this half-hearted attempt. Rikou growled and turned to Harii, "Will you quit following me?"

Harii chuckled, "Well I don't want to be aggravating like Kinji," Rikou rolled her eyes at this, "but, nope, not until you tell me what's wrong."

Rikou gritted her teeth and spit out three words. Harii blinked and cupped his ear, "Come again?"

Rikou glared at Harii again, "You know you _are _aggravating, just worse than Kinji."

Harii smirked and bowed, "I live to serve, my lady."

Rikou exhaled noisily, "Fine, fine… Suisama, Rai, and that… that… ugh!" Harii had to stifle a chuckle from her, "They were bullies. Maybe it was because I was a know-it-all, maybe it was something else but they were my academy bullies; happy now?"

Harii's eyes glinted dangerously, but faded quickly, "Well it shouldn't bother you that much, it was just a childhood case of cruelty, everyone faces one sometime. Besides what happened to the strong and smart girl Kinji loves?"

Rikou nodded absentmindedly, but backtracked and turned red, "Harii! Kinji does _not _like me! I don't even like him in that way!"

Harii chuckled, "Ah preteen romance, full of cluelessness and stupidity. I can't wait until I'm old enough."

Rikou glared at him intensely that Harii sighed in relief when he saw her house, "Well here's your house; I'll leave you to making your seals, have fun and don't forget to come to Ichiraku when you're done!"

Rikou continued to glare at him only for her mind to click at his words, "I don't have fun making seals… and I don't forget things!"

She merely received a faint chuckle in reply.

* * *

Three synchronous clunks were heard as Team 4 finished their ramen. They paid for the ramen and headed for the gates. Kinji burped loudly and was gifted with a slap from Rikou. They started to argue again all the while Harii was strolling behind them, his smirk deepening with each insult. _Love Birds._

When they came to the gates, they slowly curved to the right, ending up walking a concentric circle to the barrier. Stars winked into existence and the wind swirled around them as Kinji broke off from his fight with Rikou and slouched his walking stance. Rikou started, "You know that's bad for your post…"

"Yes I know that it's bad for my posture thank you very much." Kinji paused and continued in a more peaceful tone, "It's just this night that has me worrying about Hinata."

Rikou's eyes sought out Harii's and held a questioning gaze. Harii opened his mouth, but Kinji spoke for him.

"Usually during these kinds of nights, I would be there for Hinata when she woke from her nightmares. These kinds of nights bring back unwanted memories for Hinata. It was the same night when she was almost kidnapped." Kinji paused, "It was during the Leaf-Cloud negotiation. Frankly, I'm surprised that you don't know about it, it's not classified information. It's funny really; it was what drove my cousin and me apart while it brought my sister and me closer."

Rikou turned her questioning gaze towards Kinji as he continued, "But enough of this, let's get back to the mission."

Rikou's bewildered face was quickly covered as she shivered and pulled the cloak tighter against her. It was truly becoming autumn as the temperature lowered at a steady rate. Harii and Kinji noticed and stepped closer to her, in order to warm themselves.

A pregnant silence reigned for what seemed the longest time, until it was cracked by Kinji's sudden stop. His Byakugan was activated, searching the area for signs of mischief. Harii and Rikou's hands flew to their weapons. A nearby bush rustled and all attention flew to the escaping dog, running through the disturbed bush. Rikou sighed in relief and stepped forward, only to be pulled back by Kinji. Rikou looked alarmed but when she followed Kinji's finger downwards she was relieved to say that she had not stepped onto the dog's… present.

Harii stifled a snort and the team resumed patrolling the area taking extra care to maneuver around the pile.

* * *

Harii had wondered why the Hokage was assigning genin an upper C/lower B-rank mission, no matter how simple the missions were. On top of that, why had he assigned Team 4, the team with two bloodline limits, especially one with the ability to see all 360°, at the gates? And why couldn't their jounin teachers join them on this mission? _Questions, questions…_

Harii sighed and looked upwards to the clear sky. His eyes traversed the inky mass, seeking for Sirius. His eyebrows came together in a frown as he failed in his search. He tried once more, but before he got far he tripped on a tree root. Physics took over and Harii's body, pulled by gravity, face-planted against the dirt road. Rikou and Kinji glanced at Harii, who motioned them to continue. Cursing, he lifted his body up with his arms. A glint of light caught Harii's attention and he cried out in warning.

Rikou and Kinji stopped abruptly and armed themselves, surveying the area. Harii slipped a hand to his chain, when a rustle from the tree above them shifted their attention. A cloaked figure flew out and poised himself for an attack. Rikou threw her kunai at him, striking dead between his eyes. The body looked shocked and puffed out of existence. It was Harii's turn to be shocked as he felt hands grab his ankles, reflexively he twisted as he jumped, forcing one of the hands to lose its grip. Harii felt an alien tingle rise from the hand and felt the ground beneath him trap his legs. He wriggled and attempted to escape, but with each attempt the earth constricted more, making Harii feel more faint.

Harii looked over to the others and saw Rikou in a similar state as he was. Kinji on the other hand was in the air, back flipping away from the hands. The owner of the hands rose from the earth, small debris cascading down his figure. His form was wrapped in a thick black cloak, and the only identifying feature was large protrusion on his back, the boulder build, and the slash mark on his forehead protector. _A_ _Missing-nin…_

* * *

Kinji's thoughts turned from worrying about Hinata to the kidnapping attempt to his cousin. He missed his cousin, his brother; he had changed after the kidnapping, after his father's death. Kinji believed that his cousin still thought his father was forced to be the sacrifice. Though his cousin might have been the genius, he had never resented that fact. After all he was his cousin, his brother. He still remembered the last time he had talked to his cousin like a favorite brother. It seemed like an eternity to him. 

It was another one of those days that he and his cousin would go into the family courtyard and train; whether it was him teaching his cousin or his cousin teaching him. That day his cousin told him of a new technique: the _Hakke Rokujyuu Yonshou no jutsu_. He learned of the power and the speed of the technique. He had proceeded to attempt to perform the technique as usual, only to fail mercilessly. He blushed; never had he failed to do a technique! Sure he couldn't have done it as fast as his cousin but still he was the heir to the Hyuuga family! Arrogance bubbled below his skin, boiling his blood; he wanted to do it! His cousin, sensing the rising chuckled innocently and reassured him. Kinji shook his head and followed his brother's words. Over and over he tried and each time brought more accuracy. Finally on his last try before he gave up he managed to land all strikes except for one. His cousin smiled at his tantrum and soon was given a question from him. He merely replied with another irritating smile.

Kinji's thoughts were shattered as his eyes caught sight of shifting earth. He evaded the chakra guided ground and faced the unearthed enemy. When a figure dropped from the tree, and cackled, "Well, well, well. It looks we've caught some genin, eh Rock-nin?"

The Rock ninja grunted in reply and the figure laughed. He leaned over and his head was bathed in the dim light of a nearby streetlight. His cheeks were scarred and his forehead adorned a slashed clouded protector.

"Hi there! I'm sorry 'bout trappin' ya, but we'll be takin' your dead corpse's as proof o' our mission."

Kinji growled and stepped between his team and the missing-nin. The Cloud ninja's eyes widened and his mouth smiled eerily. "Well, well, well. Look here, it's a Hyuuga! When I kill ya I'm gonna take tha' eye o' yours."

Kinji's eyes flattened and he activated the Byakugan. The Rock-nin formed a seal, and with a mutter earth began to slowly climb up Harii and Rikou's legs.

The Cloud-nin laughed, "My friend here's a little bumped in tha head. But he's smart enough ta know when ya 'bout ta attack. When tha' dirt cova's completely, ya friends are dead!"

Kinji growled again, and flicked his hands, _Odayaka na Dangan no jutsu!_ The kunai flew towards the Rock-nin, but was knocked off course from two thrown kunai, catching their propelled counterparts in the ring. The Cloud-nin laughed and threw more kunai, purposely at Harii and Rikou. Kinji cursed and imitated the Cloud-nin by altering their course. Kinji shot kunai once more and rushed to approach the Cloud-nin. The ninja skipped backwards and slipped on knuckles. He grinned at lashed out at Kinji, who avoided the bladed fists. The ninja drove his knee into Kinji's stomach and elbowed him to the ground.

The Cloud-nin clicked his tongue, "Tick, tick, tick. You're wasting time here. Your friends don't have much hope left if ya keep this up."

Kinji glared at him and pushed himself to his feet. The Cloud-nin nodded and lashed out again; Kinji retreated and fell into a stance. With his hands held open he spoke, "_Hakke Sanjyuu Nishou." _

He appeared at the Cloud-nin's chest and started to commence his attack. Blow upon blow struck the Cloud-nin, who staggered at the attack. Kinji retreated and the Cloud-nin coughed up blood. He grinned, a toothy grin and pulled back his hand and flung it forward. A lance flew from his hand which soon duplicated into multiple lances. _Yari Kougeki!_ Kinji pulled back his palms and swiped them before the lances: _Hakke Kusho!_ The lances flew aside to reveal the Cloud-nin poised to slice Kinji with his knuckles. The blades raked against Kinji's right arm and drew blood. Kinji bit his lip in pain as he fell back, tipping the Cloud-nin over him. Planting his feet on his knees Kinji drew back his right palm and drove it into his chest. Kinji's palm glowed and he spoke, _Odayaka Myaku._ A ripple of chakra fled from his palm into the chest blasting the Cloud-nin to the ground three meters away, face first. The Cloud-nin looked up and cursed, and planted a shaky hand to lift himself. A dim shadow appeared around him and soon his shaking was abruptly smothered by a large boulder.

The Rock-nin, who now was missing his hump, walked over to the boulder and stood next to it. His tongue moistened his lips and a gravelly voice grounded out, "Damn condescending Cloud chuunin. You forgot the fucking first rule of a ninja: see underneath the underneath."

He turned to Kinji and grinned; "Now it's your turn, my fellow ninja."

He picked up the boulder easily and threw it at Kinji. Kinji's eyes widened and he dashed to the side. The Rock-nin calmly walked over to his rock and chucked the boulder once more. Kinji ducked under the rock and rushed towards the missing-nin.

The missing-nin drew back his hands and unleashed a flurry of fists at Kinji before he had gotten close enough to attack. Kinji dropped to avoid the heavy fists and crouched, palms toward his opponent. _Hakke Kusho!_

The technique propelled the Rock-nin several meters away, dust rising as his feet dragged along. Kinji appeared before him and performed his _Hakke Sanjyuu Nishou_. The Rock-nin threw up a wall of earth and punched it. A column of earth extended outwards towards Kinji's stomach.

Kinji twisted and flipped over the wall, his thoughts sharpening as adrenaline coursed through his body. Kinji fell into the stance while airborne and exhaled, _Hakke Sanjyuu Nishou_. He lightly stepped and appeared several centimeters near the missing-nin's chest. His eyes narrowed and he began his onslaught.

_2… 4… 8… 16… 32!_

Each strike precisely hit their target; Kinji flipped backwards and tensed, observing the outcome of the attack. The Rock-nin remained standing as earth fell in clumps from his body, _Dosei Bugu no jutsu_ he whispered.

He smirked and voiced, _Kyourandotou no jutsu_. His hands pronged themselves at the ground beneath Kinji. Kinji's eyes widened as he felt the earth below him shift and slowly began to turn. Kinji leaped upwards, only to be pulled down once again by the swirling earthen pit. His eyes sought the weakness of the technique but couldn't find one. His mind raced, his breathing quickened, and his eyes desperately sought out a solution. At once his mind went back to his last peaceful meeting with his cousin.

His eyes focused once again but this time on the source of chakra: the missing-nin. His mind noticed the unwavering stance. Focusing his chakra into his feet he blasted above the maelstrom and uttered, _Odayaka Myaku_.

The Rock-nin was surprised at such a recovery and was blown to the boulder, he had previously used. Wanting to end the battle, Kinji prayed to who ever reigned the above that his next attack would work. He fell into the _Hakke _stance once more and whispered, _Hakke Rokujyuu Yonshou no jutsu_.

1… 2… 4… 8… 16… 32… 63!

Kinji winced as his last series of strikes became sloppy, with only 31 of them hitting the intended target. The Rock-nin collapsed and once Kinji deemed it safe, he walked to his teammates. Before he reached the halfway mark to them a slight motion in his Byakugan view made him turn around.

The Rock-nin had steadied himself and had the boulder lifted, although weakly, and was poised for the throw. Kinji dashed to the side as the boulder arched from his hand to the ground. The Rock-nin appeared near the boulder and threw it again, finally collasping under Kinji's technique, and again Kinji dashed away. However this time he dashed to his teammates, seeking to free them. Hurriedly Kinji focused some chakra into his palms and placed them on the neck-high earth. The earth promptly crumbled as the chakra of the Rock-nin in the dirt was jammed. Rikou and Harii stepped out of the ring of earth formed and took out kunai. However as their hands moved to their containers, they were roughly shoved aside by Kinji.

Kinji turned to dash to them, only to feel immense pain as he felt his body whip around, smashing into the earth. His body smacked against the boulder as it pinned him, his left arm under the great weight. Pain wreaked havoc on his body as the adrenaline began to fade. The cut in his right arm flared in pain. Yet it was cruelly smothered by the overbearing wave of pain. All too soon did Kinji felt something was wrong. There was supposed to be another wave of pain, not the unnerving numbness radiating from his arm. Shock overwhelmed his body's limit as sweet darkness swept him from reality. His last thought was his last brotherly question to his cousin:

_How is this jutsu supposed to help me, Neji-juutei?_

* * *

A/N: Eh. Again sorry about the wait. I would have updated yesterday but ffnet's document uploader didn't work. Thanks to my Beta Morier for the unbelievable quick beta. I also apologize for my vivisection of the Japanese language. Time _should_ be more plentiful now that vacation's over, unless there's a heat wave or friends call. Anyway here's the Translations: 

Translations:  
_Odayaka na Dangan_ – Gentle Bullet  
_Hakke Sanjyuu Nishou_ – Eight Trigrams Thirty-Two Palms  
_Hakke Rokujyuu Yonshou_ – Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms  
_Yari Kougeki_ – Lance Assault  
_Hakke Kusho_ – Eight Trigrams Empty Palms  
_Odayaka Myaku_ – Gentle Pulse  
_Dosei Bugu_ – Earthen Armor  
_Kyourandotou_ – Maelstrom ('The state of affairs being in great turmoil' actually)  
_juutei_ – younger cousin

Until Next Time

AibohphobiA


	8. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: _This session of television is interrupted in order to go watch the author announce his excuses live. _The screen glitches to a stage with a restless audience glaring at the curtains trying will them to open. And open did the curtains. A figure steps away from the backdrop and calmly walks up to the previously empty podium. His mouth opens and the excuses run the marathon.

"Hey! Now I know you've been wondering where I was all this time. But a fickle thing called Real Life ™ has been messing around with my life. I hope that this breather will last, as I hope most of you will do the same." The author bows quickly, narrowly missing a thrown tomato. "Now on to the disclaimers: I do not own Naruto or Harry Potter; they belong to their respective owners. Thank you and now on the show." The author turns sharply and strolls purposely behind the curtains. Or at least he was attempting to when he slipped on previously thrown vegetable.

Chapter 7

A cacophony of silence hung in the atmosphere that morning in the hospital. Nurses and doctors were hurrying hither and thither past the ER hallways minding their own business, not noticing the two genin sitting across from each other. Nor did they notice the red light signifying an operation as they bustle by. If one, however, were to notice them they would shy away from the depressing weight around the door and genin. Yet it was there that the Hokage found Harii and Rikou, heads hung and bodies tensed waiting for the answer.

The light tap-tap of his sandals alerted them to his presence yet it did little to budge them. They were like mountains, he was the wind, and the operation was the snow: eroding and shaping. He stood there in the middle of the hallway staring at the genin, at the door, at the light.

The light soon dimmed as the doctor walked out, his eyes weary from the operation, his hands shaking from exhaustion, his mouth dry containing the answer. He blinked and licked his lips, wetting them. It did little to stir the genin as they continued to grind their gazes against the tiled floor.

The doctor cleared his throat nervously and began his analysis, "The patient will live, however he will be unconscious for a few days. Ahem, when he was scanned for damage we found multiple broken ribs, a severely deep cut on his right arm and massive damage to his entire left arm. Luckily his spine and neck received minor damage, so he is not paralyzed. Ahem, we managed to successfully heal the cut on his right arm; it should be back to normal in a span of a few days. The broken ribs were also successfully healed; again a few days until the pain stops. His left arm on the other hand… Ahem, the boulder seemed to have managed to obliterate the entire bone structure of the arm and destroy parts of the muscle structure. We have healed enough that both structures will be able to recover to below if not at original strength. However the boulder was found to be integrated with chakra, which when impacted would release the stored chakra. On non-living objects it would intensify the brute damage, but with living objects…" the doctor seemed to shiver, "it sought out the nervous system and destroyed the entire sector of nerves in his arm. The patient would be able to use the arm if not for that fact."

The atmosphere seemed to darken immensely at that sentence. The doctor apologized and excused himself. Rikou began to sob as Harii's left hand tensed. The Hokage sighed and sat down near them rubbing his eyes. After a moment to form his words into sentences he opened his mouth to speak.

"What will come of the missing-nin?"

The Hokage looked at Harii as he finished his question, "He will be questioned and returned to his village for Hunter-nins to dispose of him."

Harii's mouth twitched as Rikou's sobbing quieted. The Hokage spoke once more, "I am sorry to place this on you, but you will need to continue the mission tomorrow; regardless of Kinji's current state. You will be assigned to your peers' other team for the meantime." Rikou nodded solemnly and Harii clenched his hands. The Hokage sighed and continued, "Rikou will be assigned to Team 8 while Harii to Team 5."

The Hokage sighed again and stood up, "Rest for now, you will need it for later today." He left in a swirl of cloth.

* * *

Harii stared at the Hokage's retreating backside. It was unfair to leave Kinji in a state like this, _but_, Harii thought, _it was the way of the ninja, to be a tool, to be emotionless, to be a powerful weapon._ It was the only part of a ninja lifestyle that he hated. Harii's mind fled to Kinji automatically. 

He should have been there for Kinji, he could have been at his side helping and protecting him! But no! He was shackled once again, left to see his comrades and close ones hurt and killed! Maybe he could give Kinji his arm, maybe he could… Harii's eyes clouded over but soon cleared as his ears focused on Rikou's sobs. Harii steel himself and walked over to Rikou and held her.

"It's time to go."

She nodded faintly and continued sobbing, although quietly. Harii shook his head lightly; it would not do with her unease. He had to find a place to calm her down first. Raking his brains he vaguely remembered the one place Rikou said she felt calm in. Harii sighed it was a long ways from the hospital.

Harii guided her away from the door and out the hospital towards the Hokage monument. Harii wanted to get her home fast, but the only viable solution was to carry her; something crossing his line of comfort. Thus he was forcibly slowed down by Rikou's numb steps. He mentally sighed, pushing away his sarcastic self and continued at the slower rate.

Finally Harii reached the Avian Reserves, the sanctuary for all birds. The complex consisted of several towers that housed specialized birds along with a civilian observatory. Harii sighed; the tower Rikou favored was on the opposite side of the complex and had an unreasonable amount of stairs. He mentally rolled his eyes, "Great, just great."

As Harii stepped onto the tallest civilian tower Rikou visibly calmed and her breath came in shaky but peaceful repetitions. After several minutes, a serene Rikou separated from Harii and motioned to accompany her home. As they walked at a less tedious speed, a large uncomfortable silence wedged itself between them.

Rikou looked up when they reached the house; she hugged Harii and smiled in gratitude. She nodded at him and turned towards the door. She paused and quickly turned to kiss Harii on the cheek; she hurried inside and closed the door.

Harii touched the place where she kissed him and promptly blushed.

* * *

Later that day one would find Rikou and Harii in the tapestry room once again as they waited for their new team to arrive. The door opened and in walked Team 8, Team Lucky. They were talking amongst themselves, waiting for their new shift when they stopped to notice Harii and Rikou. 

Harii was entirely focused on looking everywhere but Rikou, while she was keenly gazing at him. Megami pouted and sauntered over to Harii.

"Hi there, I'm not sure we've met, but I'm Benzaiten Megami."

Harii's eyes turned to Megami, "Nice to meet you."

Megami, annoyed by the flatness of the response, tried again, "I was wondering where Kinji is, do you know?" Megami fluttered her eyelashes.

Harii either took no notice of the flirting or didn't care as he uttered, "Hospital."

Megami's eyes widened dramatically and asked him why. Harii simply replied, "Injured."

Megami soon gave up on him as she felt he wasn't attracted to her and turned to Rikou, who was tittering at the conversation. "Why, hello Torigoya, I didn't see you there."

Rikou's humor died as she addressed Megami, "Of course you didn't; your big ego is always in the way."

Megami turned red, "Whatever Torigoya; go and play with your baby chicken."

"He's a falcon! A falcon!"

"Right…"

"Just go home Benzaiten!"

"Why and let you take them? I think not!"

"Take them? They aren't trophies!"

"Right, which just shows that I'm better than you."

"You little…"

The two girls continued to bicker in a manner not quite unlike Rikou with Kinji. Harii rolled his eyes, pushed up his glasses, and engaged the other two members of Team Lucky.

"I haven't had the chance to meet you guys properly."

The chubby genin chuckled cheerfully and stuck out a hand, "Well let's start then! My name's Yare Hotei! This here slim guy next to me's Uwaa Bisha."

The slim one next to Hotei nodded and Harii returned the gesture. Harii turned back to Hotei and grabbed his hand, "My name is Tougeika Harii."

Hotei nodded, "I've heard of you Harii, I was surprised to hear that you guys took a C-mission last, I mean with Kinji on the team and all." Hotei winced, "Sorry, my mouth runs amok at times."

Harii shook his head, "Its okay," his voice seemed a little forced.

Harii turned his attention to Bisha. "Hello."

Bisha nodded in reply and continued to daydream. Hotei noticed Harii's puzzled face and explained, "I'm sorry about Bisha, ever since he fell on that mission his brains has been a little scrambled. We're all worried that he has some permanent damage, but doctors say that this daydreaming is no sign of such a thing."

Bisha seemed to snap out of his trance and spoke to Harii, "Sorry about that, I'm sure Hotei told you all about me right? Well it's really nice getting to know you; I hope we can work together on missions in the future." Bisha nodded off once again.

A pregnant pause ensued, only interrupted by the biting remarks from the female duo behind them. Hotei shook his head, "I swear all of that bickering is just an outlet for their undying friendship between them."

Harii turned a questioning gaze to Hotei, as he explained, "Well back during the Academy, Rikou and Megami used to be the best of friends, as both were close neighbors. It used to be that Megami would protect Rikou from her bullies as Rikou would do the same for her. It was not until Megami moved away to the center of the town to open a store did complications began. It was there that Megami began pushing her studies harder as she had less time to play with Rikou. (I mean really, working in a store is tiring work) Rikou became jealous and pushed herself further. This began the whole, _I'm-doing-better-than-you_ dilemma, which soon escalated to verbal fights, as proof of it here."

Harii felt an eyebrow rise as he returned his gaze to the two fighting kunoichi. He shook his head, w_ell at least this time she's not mad at us… _Harii shuddered at the remembrance. He shifted his attention back to Hotei as he continued.

"So Harii, I had this huge weight of curiosity when I saw you in assigning room. I mean I never saw you in class when I went, so predictably I would be curious right? Anyways I was wondering when did you take the test and how come you weren't seen in class?"

Harii's eyes clouded over and responded lightly, "My schooling was interrupted; I took it after everyone else."

Hotei seemed to be confused for a second before his eyes lit up again, "Oh really! Wow I had thought you were home-schooled and took the test before us, but wow. I know this guy who knows this guy who was home-schooled…"

Hotei's words seemed to fade out as Harii became lost in fond memories. Only Bisha noticed the slight smile and faraway eyes on Harii's face.

* * *

Finally after what had seemed an eternity to one observing, Hotei's cultivation of words slowed, "… and that's how we finished our C-rank mission. Oh! Well look, the Hokage is here." 

Harii's eyes faded back to reality and responded, "Hmm? Oh, yes so it seems."

Harii looked around, massaging his neck and noticed the faintly snickering Rikou next to him, the pouting Megami next to Bisha, Team 5 sneering from across the room, and the entering Hokage.

The Hokage walked to a desk in front of the room and sat down. He coughed and spoke, "As you may know, Hyuuga Kinji was hospitalized early today after his mission, after an attack by two upper-chuunin ranked missing-nin. As such Team 4 will be separated and assigned to the two remaining teams for today. Torigoya Rikou will be with Team 8 patrolling residential areas one through ten, while Tougeika Harii will be with Team 5 patrolling the commerce district. Your mission starts now, and be careful out there."

* * *

Harii had to admit though he was quite comfortable with them as they ignored him. It was like he had gone back in time to when he was alone: no friends, all loneliness. He habitually fell back into what he had dubbed his "Overly Silent, Overly Sarcastic Persona" or Kamu Kahi Jin for short. He had many bouts of laughter from that. So here he was walking a _respectable _distance from them, observing the surroundings. 

People were hustling and bustling from stand to stall to store as they made their daily/weekly/whatever frequent shopping sprees. Harii mentally reminded himself to go and restock his supplies, they were _really _getting low. A bark of laughter caught his attention, and he flicked his eyes to the other team members. As he had thought, they were frankly arrogant in their duties: smirking, laughing, and in general condescending in every aspect.

Harii pushed up his glasses and rolled his eyes; Rikou was lucky to be assigned to Team 8, with only Megami to deal with. Four faint tolls of the market clock, alerted Team 5 for the arrogant air around them dissipated and was replaced by one commonly found with troublemakers.

Suisama glanced over to Harii and turned back to his teammates whispering. Harii rolled his eyes, it was not like he couldn't hear them; from the few snatches he caught it was safe, or rather _unsafe_, assume that the others had something they wanted to do.

"…we should go now, the old man's going on shift today…"

"…about Sharp-Nose?"

"…worry. He won't follow…"

"Alright… go…"

Harii noticed as Suisama neared him with a certain smug swagger. _Oh for the chance to knock him out_, thought Harii.

"We're taking a break; you'll be in charge for a little while. Don't mess up Sharp-Nose."

Suisama sneered at him and returned to his teammates and they rushed over to a particular store. Harii sighed and pushed up his glasses as he headed for the other side of the street and positioned himself to observe the other's venture into the _alternate_ _material_ section of the store. Harii smirked as he bought a fresh apple; this was going to be fun.

* * *

Sure enough within a few minutes a large crash could be heard as one of the staff found the lurking trio. Harii could see the tops of various shelves tip as the lurkers were pursued. The commotion was loud enough that the entire street paused to stare. Suddenly everything went silent and as everyone thought to return to their previous actions, an exclaimed "_Aha!"_ held their attention once again. A smack accompanied by a squeal was heard as trampling feet raced to the exit. More swings along with more fleshy smacks, were heard as the trio escaped. A red faced man soon appeared at the door, shaking his broom at their fleeing behinds yelling incoherent threats. 

Harii smacked his face as his body shivered with mirth. It took all of his control to keep himself from falling to the floor laughing his head off. Harii eventually calmed down and followed the others; he wanted to be there when they do something stupid again.

After walking many blocks, Harii found them shopping for some fruits, trying to bargain the already low-priced items. Harii rolled his eyes and grabbed the forgotten apple from before and proceeded to eat it. As he watched them aggravate the merchant. Harii's mind wandered and started to wonder about Rikou, certainly she would have a better time with Team 8.

* * *

Rikou was not having a good time with Team 8. Oh sure she could handle the annoying self chattering of Hotei and the cloudy countenance of Bisha. No, what she couldn't handle was the annoyance's constant glaring, which was of course reciprocated quite refreshingly. So far residential areas 1 through 3 were clean, for they consisted of the elderly and the richer housing of the middle class. The same was for areas 7 though 10, as they had humble farmers and workers. When they reached areas 4-6 however, did things went from awkward to bad. It was here that most of the crimes were committed, though they were mostly harmless teenage pranks. They were able to stop any crimes that day though, as many of the troublemakers had taken interest in one Benzaiten Megami. It was then that Rikou's day cascaded as after every attempt of attention did that hag smirk at her. But of course some did come onto her, though she dismissed them curtly with one of her award-worthy glares, she did her team proud. 

Just as she thought the torture reach a crescendo though, noon was before them and the children came out to play as the teenagers went off to eat. The children ran up to them and literally _bounced_ at the new guests in the area.

The witch smiled and crouched down to pick up one of them and told them a story as the guys stood back eating their simple lunch. Rikou found her lips starting to curve upwards at the scene and turned away as the ha-Megami turned in her general direction. Rikou felt an old feeling, she thought she'd buried long ago. Sighing, she gazed up into the sky, idly noting the cloud formations. Maybe this mission wouldn't be such a torturous concoction of twisted fate.

* * *

Harii pushed up his glasses; having a mission with the arrogance-in-a-bottle team was turning into one of laughs and sighs. So far he watched the threesome stir up trouble with merchants, chased by the local alley animals, and repeatedly being smacked around by ah… _mature_ women. Truthfully, he was sick of it. Well at least not the slapping part, those were stored under _never forget_. 

A crash echoed in a nearby alley as a yelp of pain rattled the china nearby. Harii winced, he had a bad feeling that the arrogant ignorant posse was heading straight ahead to trouble, no pun intended. Harii brushed his clothes and strolled innocently towards the alley.

He was right; they were in trouble or had at least brought trouble to an innocent bystander. They had knocked off a crate and a kitten had fallen from the top of the crate. The team had crowded around the kitten, observing it moan. Just as Harii stepped into the alley, Fu took the kitten in her hands and motioned the others to follow as she rushed past Harii to the nearest vet. Harii stepped out of the shadows and watched the hurrying backs of Team 5. _Maybe_, he thought, _just maybe there is a normal bone inside of that arrogant skeleton…_

* * *

Harii sighed; he had just got off duty and neared his family grounds. It was becoming akin to a second home to him. Of course all of his stuff was at his apartment, but it was one of those things that made him feel that he had a connection to the rest of the world, or at least his family. Harii walked pass the courtyard and to an overhang of earth, hovering over a serene lake. He laid down upon the soft grass and gazed upwards into the sky. It was a beautiful night, a beautiful way to end a mostly peaceful day. Harii soon fell asleep under the stars near his family grounds; his back resting against the grass, arms cushioning his head, and legs crossed a few meters from the edge of the ledge. 

Yet across the village, emerging from the gates were the battered and bleeding teams of chuunin as they headed for the hospital, following the dim starlit streets.

* * *

A/N: Ah! Sorry readers! Thanks a lot to Morier, my beta for such a timely beta. Hope your troublemaker gets caught! Not much action, not much advancing plot, but eh that's what fillers are for eh? Anyway next chapter should pick up on the plot and maybe a teeny weeny bit of the action. We'll just have to see .

Traslations: (Not much but eh)  
_Kamu Kahi Jin_ – To bite a servant girl's temple (funny how the shortened version is also a symbolic version .)

Well Until The Next Kunai Is Thrown,

AibohphobiA


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